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.
My first book, Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine, was recently published by Princeton University Press, and has received the Social Science History Association’s President’s Book Award. Creating the Market University 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. I argue 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. I have written several papers on this topic as well.
In the course of my research on academic science, I found to my surprise that the work of economists played a key role in transforming science policy — and ultimately the university. This has led to a second major project studying the role of economic expertise in several US policy domains. I have written about how economic claims are used in tax policy, as well as the economic rationalization of science & technology policy.
I am currently conducting research for a book that will look at the “economicization” of policy making in these domains as well as those of antitrust, welfare and education policy. The book will argue that the shift toward economic thinking that has taken place in US politics on both the left and the right has had broad social consequences. While the US turn toward the market is often attributed to proponents of free-market ideals, I argue that it is economic rationalization — coming to think of more activities as part of an economic system, and economic outcomes, like growth and increased productivity, as normatively desirable — that drives this change, not a preference for free markets over government intervention.
You can email me at epberman@albany.edu.
