Edwin Amenta
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Indiana University Bloomington (MA-1982)
University of Chicago (PhD-1989)
Edwin Amenta | |
|---|---|
| Born | Chicago, Illinois |
| Alma mater | Indiana University Bloomington (AB-1979) Indiana University Bloomington (MA-1982) University of Chicago (PhD-1989) |
| Children | Luisa Amenta, Gregory Amenta |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Social policy Social movements Political sociology Historical sociology Comparative sociology Sports sociology |
| Institutions | University of California, Irvine |
| Doctoral advisor | Theda Skocpol[1] |
Edwin Amenta is an American sociologist best known for his study of social policy, social movements and the New Deal.
Through his Political Mediation Theory, developed as a consequence of studying the Townsend Plan, an organization demanding old-age pensions during the Great Depression, and other New Deal-era movements, Amenta has influenced how scholars conceptualize, study, and explain social movement impacts.[2] He is also known for theorizing the role of political institutions in policy-making. Amenta's recent work includes the development of a newspaper coverage database that allows scholars to test theories of social movement impacts across 32 major social movements.[3]
Amenta has written four books and more than 50 articles and book chapters. Bold Relief: Institutional Politics and the Origins of Modern American Social Policy (Princeton University Press, 1998) won the 1999 Distinguished Book award from the American Sociological Association section on Political Sociology.[4] His article “Age for Leisure? Political Mediation and the Impact of the Pension Movement on U.S. Old-Age Policy" (with Neal Caren and Sheera Joy Olasky) won the 2006 Best Published Article Award from the American Sociological Association section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements.[5]
Amenta's other books include When Movements Matter: The Townsend Plan and the Rise of Social Security (Princeton University Press, 2006)[6][7] and The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).[8]
Amenta has served as the chair of the American Sociological Association Political Sociology section and Collective Behavior and Social Movements section,[9] and he has received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation[10] and the National Science Foundation.[11]
