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Elisabeth Stephanie Clemens is an American sociologist, who is currently the William Rainey Harper Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the college at the University of Chicago. Clemens's research is focused on social movements, organizations, and American political development. As of 2016, Clemens has served as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Sociology.

Education and career

Clemens holds a bachelor's degree in social studies from Harvard University, and in 1990 she graduated from the University of Chicago with a PhD in sociology. At the University of Chicago, Clemens completed her dissertation supervised by Theda Skocpol, Wendy Griswold, and Edward O. Laumann.

From 1990 to 2002, Clemens was a professor at the University of Arizona, before returning to her alma mater the University of Chicago as professor sociology in 2002. Clemens served as department chair from 2012 to 2015, and from 2012 to 2013 she served as president of the Social Science History Association. In 2016, Clemens assumed the role of editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Sociology, the discipline's first journal in the United States, from Andrew Abbott who had held the position since 2000.

The People's Lobby

Clemens's first book The People's Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890–1925, which derived from her dissertation research, argues that beginning in the late nineteenth century American politics was transformed from a system oriented around political party organizations and elections to one oriented around interest groups. This shift was instigated by what Clemens refers to as 'the people's lobby', groups of citizens and voters that influenced party politics through novel forms of civic engagement, which bypassed traditional political processes. Clemens investigates the emergence of the people's lobby across the American states California, Washington, and Wisconsin, arguing that federalism allowed for distinct regional variations. The book was awarded the American Sociological Association's Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work's Max Weber Book award in 1998 as well as the Political Sociology Section's Outstanding Contribution to Political Sociology award in 1999.

Clemens's research developed in The People's Lobby is regarded as engaging with theories of sociological institutions with a focus on organizational innovation. Her scholarship on institutions has been discussed in reviews of sociological literature on social movements and institutionalism.

Bibliography

Sole-authored books

• Clemens, Elisabeth S. (2020). Civic Gifts: Benevolence and the Making of the American Nation-State. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226670836.
• Clemens, Elisabeth S. (2016). What Is Political Sociology?. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. ISBN 978-0745691619.
• Clemens, Elisabeth S. (1997). The People's Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890-1925. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226109933.

Co-edited books

• Clemens, Elisabeth S.; Guthrie, Doug, eds. (2010). Politics and Partnerships: Voluntary Associations in America's Political Past and Present. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226109978.
• Adams, Julia; Clemens, Elisabeth S.; Orloff, Ann Shola, eds. (2005). Remaking Modernity: Politics and Processes in Historical Sociology. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822333630.
• Powell, Walter; Clemens, Elisabeth S., eds. (1998). Private Action and the Public Good. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300064490.

References

1. ^ "Elisabeth S. Clemens Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). The Department of Sociology. University of Chicago. July 2016.
2. ^ Clemens, Elisabeth S. (1997). The People's Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890–1925. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p. ix. ISBN 0226109933.
3. Clemens, Elisabeth Stephanie (1990). Organizing as Interests: The Transformation of Social Politics in the United States, 1890–1920 (PhD). University of Chicago. OCLC 27428795. ProQuest 303888708.
4. "Elisabeth S. Clemens". The Department of Sociology. University of Chicago.
5. "American Journal of Sociology - Editorial Board". American Journal of Sociology. University of Chicago Press. 2020.
6. "Andrew Abbott Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). The Department of Sociology. University of Chicago. April 2019.
7. Powell, Lawrence Alfred (1999). "Reviewed Work: The People's Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890‐1925. by Elisabeth S. Clemens". American Journal of Sociology. 104 (4): 1248–1250. doi:10.1086/210168. S2CID 151768877.
8. "Organizations, Occupations, and Work Award History". Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work. American Sociological Association. 2020.
9. "Political Sociology Award History". Section on Political Sociology. American Sociological Association. 2020.
10. Skocpol, Theda; Ganz, Marshall; Munson, Ziad (2000). "A Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States". American Political Science Review. 94 (3): 533. doi:10.2307/2585829. JSTOR 2585829. S2CID 145598414.
11. Clemens, Elisabeth S.; Cook, James M. (1999). "Politics and Institutionalism: Explaining Durability and Change". Annual Review of Sociology. 25: 441–466. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.441.
12. Polletta, Francesca; Jasper, James M. (2001). "Collective Identity and Social Movements". Annual Review of Sociology. 27: 283–305. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.283. S2CID 15738286.

External links

• Elisabeth S. Clemens, University Chicago Faculty Homepage

• Living people
• Harvard College alumni
• University of Chicago alumni
• University of Arizona faculty
• University of Chicago faculty
• Political sociologists
• American women sociologists
• American sociologists
• American women political scientists
• American political scientists
• 20th-century American women writers
• 20th-century American social scientists
• 21st-century American social scientists
• 21st-century American women writers
• American Journal of Sociology editors