Current Projects

Mark Granovetter

About one of Professor Granovetter's current projects: I am conducting research on the sociology of industrial organization. One study is called the “Silicon Valley Network Analysis Project” (SiVNAP) Though everyone agrees that the most crucial aspect of Silicon Valley’s dramatic success is its networks, there has been virtually no systematic study of their history, structure and functioning. In this study we inquire about these networks and their evolution over time. We also investigate the institutional complex that supports local industrial activity, including financial, educational, legal, and political sectors.  Professor Granovetter's Webpage

Susan Olzak

One of Professor Olzak's current projects is a combined state, national, and international-level project (funded by the Sociology Program at NSF and by the UPS Endowment Fund) analyzing the impact of environmental advocacy group activity on pro-environmental legislation in the U.S. Congress and in the California State Legislature (with Sarah A. Soule).  Professor Olzak's Webpage

Henning Hillmann

Current work focuses on a comparative study of the political economy of privateering and piracy in Britain and France (c.1688-1815). A second project explores how reputation effects shaped the economic performance of serial entrepreneurs in Imperial Russsia (c.1851-1914).  Professor Hillmann's Webpage

Michael Rosenfeld

One of Professor Rosenfeld's current research projects is a study of how couples meet, in other words where and when in the life course people first meet the individuals who will later become their partners and spouses. This used to be a central research question in American sociology 60 years ago, when most people met their future partners in the same way (by living in the same neighborhood). Now that young adults marry later and spend more of their single years away from the parental nest, it is time to figure out how patterns of young adulthood affect who meets (and who partners) with whom. This project has already gathered pilot data. The project will include 1 year, 2 year, and 5 year follow ups to ascertain the relationship dissolution rates for all types of couples in the US, including the hard to study nontraditional unions.  Professor Rosenfeld's Webpage

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