John Franklin Lofland (born 1936) is an American sociologist best known for his studies of the

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

and for his first book, '' Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith'', which was based on field work among a group of

Unification Church The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists, or "Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Spi ...

members in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the 1960s. It is considered to be one of the most important and widely cited studies of the process of

religious conversion Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...

, and one of the first modern sociological studies of a

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...

Biography

Lofland was born in

Milford Milford may refer to: Place names Canada * Milford (Annapolis), Nova Scotia * Milford (Halifax), Nova Scotia * Milford, Ontario England * Milford, Derbyshire * Milford, Devon, a place in Devon * Milford on Sea, Hampshire * Milford, Shro ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

, and attended

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and 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 u ...

, where he earned a PhD in sociology based on his Unification Church study. Since 1970 he has been a professor in the sociology department at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Sociology .CV

, all information from here is from this source. In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s Lofland did field work among peace demonstrators in 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 territorie ...

and in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. He has undertaken administrative roles in several social science associations and contributed as an editor or associate editor to sociological publications. He has also been active in community organizations in

Davis Davis may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Davis (Antarctica) * Davis Island (Palmer Archipelago) * Davis Valley, Queen Elizabeth Land Canada * Davis, Saskatchewan, an unincorporated community * Davis Strait, between Nunavut and Gre ...

, California.

Writings

* 1966 Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Missionizing and Faith Maintenance, Prentice-Hall. 1977, Enlarged Edition, hardcover, Irvington; paperback edition, 1981. * 1969 Deviance and Identity, with the assistance of Lyn Lofland, Prentice-Hall. * 1971 Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis, Wadsworth. 1984, Second Edition, with Lyn H. Lofland. 1995, Third Edition, with Lyn H. Lofland. Japanese translation, 1997. Fourth Edition, with D. Snow & L. Anderson, process for 2004 publication. * 1976 Doing Social Life: The Qualitative Analysis of Human Interaction in Natural Settings, Wiley. * 1977 State Executions Viewed Historically and Sociologically, with H. Bleackley, Patterson Smith. * 1978 Interaction in Everyday Life: Social Strategies, editor, Sage. * 1982 Crowd Lobbying: An Emerging Tactic of Interest Group Influence in California, Univ. of California, Davis, Institute on Governmental Affairs. Symbolic Sit-ins: Protest Occupations at the California Capitol, with M. Fink, University Press of America. * 1985 Protest: Studies of Collective Behavior and Social Movements, Transaction. 1991, paperback edition. * 1990 Peace Action in the Eighties: Social Science Perspectives, co-editor with Sam Marullo, Rutgers. * 1991 Peace Movement Organizations and Activists: An Analytic Bibliography, co-edited with V.Johnson and P. Kato, Haworth. * 1993 Polite Protesters: The American Peace Movement of the 1980s, Syracuse. * 1996

Social Movement Organizations Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

: Guide to Research on Insurgent Realities, Aldine de Gruyter. * 1999 Old North Davis: Guide to Walking a Traditional Neighborhood. Yolo County Historical Society. * 2000 Davis, California, 1910s–1940s, (with Phyllis Haig), Arcadia.J. Lofland, C. V. Winter, 2001 — 4 * 2001 Handbook of

Ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

, co-editor with P. Atkinsion, M. Couch, L. Lofland, Sage. * in process, Demolishing A Historic Hotel: A Documentary Socioiology of Preservation Failures.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lofland, John 1936 births 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century social scientists American anti-war activists American sociologists California State University faculty Columbia University alumni Living people Pennsylvania National Guard personnel Researchers of new religious movements and cults Sociologists of deviance Sociologists of religion Swarthmore College alumni Symbolic interactionism UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni University of California, Davis faculty University of Michigan faculty Writers about activism and social change

Biography

Writings

See also

References