Curriculum Vitae
Thomas received his Ph. D. in Social Sciences from the European University
Institute, Florence, Italy. He holds an M.A. from Paper presented at the ESA Conference "New Directions in
European Media"
Aristotle University Thessaloniki, November 5-7, 2004.
Paper presented at the Biannual RC-33 Meeting, Amsterdam, August 17-20, 2004.
Systematizing the empirical identification of frames using qualitative data analysis software
Paper Presented at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, August 14-17,
2004.
Paper presented to Session PCR13 (Methods, Research, Concepts) at the IAMCR Annual Meeting, Porto Alegre,
Brazil,
July 25-30, 2004.
Why dense networks help recruitment to new social movements, but obstruct
recruitment to the New Age movement
presented at the
ASA
Annual Meeting 1999
ABSTRACT
presented at the
ASA
Annual Meeting 1999
ABSTRACT
presented at the
MSS
Annual Meeting 1998
ABSTRACT
Theory and Methodology of International Comparative Research
What a Lousy Study! Rubbish! Goodness Criteria in Social Research
Areas of Specialization
Online Papers
Conference Papers
Nationalization vs. Europeanization vs. Globalization of
Issues
that Should Belong to the European Public Sphere
Routinizing Frame Analysis
through
the Use of CAQDAS Reframing Frame AnalysisOn Frames and Framing: Anti-Semitism as Free
Speech
Patterns of Movement Recruitment
While most social movements recruit their members
from dense, submerged networks, movements rooted in Middle America -- such
as New Age and other marketed social movements -- recruit individuals who precisely lack an embeddedness in
dense, emotionally gratifying networks. As a consequence of these differential recruitment patterns, Middle
American movements do not contain grassroots groups. Such grassroots groups have significantly contributed
to
the successful production of collective action by new social (and to a lesser extent poor people's)
movements.
Stiftung Volkswagenwerk and Ford Foundation or STATA
Corporation
and SPSS, Inc.: Who Rules Sociology?
A Supply-Side Driven Critique of the Discipline´s Segmentation
Genesis and consequences of sociology´s segmented differentiation are
discussed. It is argued that sociology´s current differentiation is not
a result of theoretical considerations, but instead has been largely determined
by social developments. In particular, social movements have increased
their grip on sociological theory, as many activist scholars have a greater
allegiance to their movement than to the academy. The commercialization
of sociological literature has put some additional extra-scientific pressures
on the discipline. As a consequence, sociology has become organizationally
proliferated along lines that have little to do with intra-disciplinary
developments. This dysfunctional segmentation has led to a weakening of
sociology towards other extra-disciplinary influences. Namely, particularly
in so-called «quantitative sociology,» a growing dependency on commercial
enterprises in the fields of data collection and data analysis can be observed.
From Organziation to Identity
The quality of the relationship between the organization of a social
movement and its collective identity is still largely unexplored. The central hypothesis of this essay
posits
that resource poor movements enjoying little
institutional support are likely to develop universalistic and
traditionally coded collective identities, while movements whose members command considerable
amounts of tangible resources and cultural capital tend to develop
primordially coded identities. The plausibility of this hypothesis is
illustrated
with the cases of the New Age and feminist movements.
Courses
Winter Semester 2002/03 (University of Göttingen)
Summer Semester 2002 (University of Göttingen)