I am an assistant professor of sociology at the University at Albany, SUNY, working at the intersection of economic sociology, organizations, the sociology of science and knowledge, and political sociology. I am currently involved in two major projects.
The first asks why US academic science, which historically set itself apart from the world of commerce, made such a dramatic move toward the market over the last several decades. My book, Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine, answers this question, arguing that this change was driven first and foremost by government policy decisions, and that a powerful new idea – that science and technology could serve as an engine to drive the economy — was at their root. It will be published by Princeton University Press in January 2012, and was recently awarded the Social Science History Association’s President’s Book Award.
I have always been interested in what we think we know about the economy and how we use that knowledge to make decisions. These questions started to seem increasingly important in 2008, as our financial system neared collapse and both economists and policymakers were left struggling to find answers. Studying the transformation of the university had already convinced me that economic ideas can have real effects on policymaking. The financial crisis made me want to understand how economic knowledge finds its way into the policymaking process more generally. My current project looks at how economic knowledge — both expert and lay knowledge — shapes decisions in three US policy domains: science & technology policy, tax policy, and antitrust policy.
You can email me at epberman@albany.edu.
