Claude Serge Fischer (born January 9, 1948) is an American sociologist and Professor of Sociology at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in urban sociology, research methods, and American society at UC Berkeley. He was elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2017.

Early life and career

Fischer was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, France on January 9, 1948. He came to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

in 1952 at the age of 4. He was raised in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California. He graduated from Fairfax High School. Fischer graduated with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

in 1968. After completing his B.A., he went to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and completed his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

(1970) and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

(1972) in sociology. After completing his Ph.D., he joined the faculty at the

in 1972.

Work

Fischer's early research focused on the

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the re ...

of urban life and on social networks. In 1982, he published the book ''To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City'' and in 1984, he published the book ''The Urban Experience''. He is credited with developing the 'subcultural theory of urbanism'. He worked on the study of social networks, in which he developed techniques for the survey study of networks and studied urban-rural differences in personal networks. He has also worked on American social history, beginning with a study of the early telephone's place in social life. He published the book ''America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940'' in 1992. In that book, he presents the first social history of this vital but little-studied technology. He examine how Americans encountered, tested, and ultimately embraced it with enthusiasm. He was also the founding editor of ''Contexts'', the American Sociological Association's magazine of sociology for the general reader. He was also its executive editor through 2004.

Awards and honors

Fischer and his books have received many awards and honors. The following are the awards and honors received by Fischer and his books. * 1986 Distinguished Scholarship Award of the Pacific Sociological Association for ''To Dwell Among Friends'' (1982) * 1995 Dexter Prize, Outstanding Book, from the Society for the History of Technology, for ''America Calling'' (1992) * 1996 Robert and Helen Lynd Award, from the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, for distinguished lifetime contribution to urban and community studies * '' Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth'' (1996) was awarded “Outstanding Book” on Human Rights, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America in 1998 * ''Century of Difference'' (2006) was a co-winner of the 2007 Otis Dudley Duncan Book Award, Population Section, American Sociological Association.

Bibliography

Fischer has published the following books. * ''Made in America: A Social History of American Culture and Character'' (2010) * ''Century of Difference: How America Changed in the Last One Hundred Years. (with Hout). New York: Russell Sage.'' (2006) * ''Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth, (with Hout, Lucas, Sánchez-Jankowski, Swidler and Voss), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press'' (1996) * ''America Calling: A Social History of the Telephone to 1940, University of California Press.'' (1992) * ''The Urban Experience. Second edition. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.'' (1984) * ''To Dwell Among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City. University of Chicago.'' (1982) * ''Networks and Places: Social Relations in the Urban Setting. (with Jackson, Stueve, Gerson, Jones, and Baldassare). New York: Free Press.'' (1977) * ''Human Aggression and Conflict. (with Scherer and Abeles), Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.'' (1975)

References

* *

External links

Personal webpage at the University of California, Berkeley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Claude S. 1948 births French emigrants to the United States American sociologists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty Fairfax High School (Los Angeles) alumni Living people Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the American Philosophical Society Contexts editors