Peter Hedström is one of the founders of the field of

analytical sociology Analytical sociology is a strategy for understanding the social world. It is concerned with explaining important macro-level facts such as the diffusion of various social practices, patterns of segregation, network structures, typical beliefs, and ...

. He has made contributions to the analysis of social contagion processes and complex

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

s, as well as to the philosophical and meta-theoretical foundations of analytical sociology. He is one of the key contributors to the literature on

social mechanism The term social mechanisms and mechanism-based explanations of social phenomena originate from the philosophy of science. The core thinking behind the mechanism approach has been expressed as follows by Elster (1989: 3-4): “To explain an event i ...

s. Hedström received his Ph.D. at

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 ...

in 1987. He then took a post as assistant professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, and, in 1989, he received a professor chair at the department of sociology,

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...

. In 2003, he assumed a position as Official Fellow and professor at

Nuffield College Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer co ...

, University of Oxford, which he left in 2011 to become the director of the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm. During the 2008/2009 he was dean of the School of Social Sciences at the

Singapore Management University The Singapore Management University (SMU) is a public autonomous university in Singapore. The university is the only city campus in Singapore. It ranks third in Asia as a specialist university, behind Hong Kong University of Science and Techn ...

. in 2014, Hedström started the Institute for Analytical Sociology at Liköping University. Hedström is past president of the Swedish Sociological Association and has served as editor of ''

Acta Sociologica ''Acta Sociologica'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all areas of sociology. It is an official journal of the Nordic Sociological Association and was established in 1955. It publishes papers on original research, book revie ...

'' and as associate editor of the ''

American Journal of Sociology The ''American Journal of Sociology'' is a peer-reviewed bi-monthly academic journal that publishes original research and book reviews in the field of sociology and related social sciences. It was founded in 1895 as the first journal in its disci ...

'', ''

Annual Review of Sociology The ''Annual Review of Sociology'' is an annual peer-reviewed review journal published by Annual Reviews since 1975. It is abstracted and indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index. As of 2022, ''Journal Citation Reports'' gives the journal a ...

'', and ''Rationality and Society''. He is the president of the International Network of Analytical Sociology, past president of the

European Academy of Sociology The European Academy of Sociology (EAS) is a fellowship of scholars with expertise in different areas of sociology. It wants to promote particular standards in sociology. EAS was founded in 2000 and Raymond Boudon was its first President. Subsequen ...

, and a Fellow of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

, the

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

, the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Univer ...

and the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

Key publications

* P. Hedström ''Dissecting the Social: On the Principles of Analytical Sociology''. Cambridge University Press, 2005. * P. Hedström and Peter Bearman (Eds.) ''The Oxford Handbook of Analytical Sociology''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. * P Hedström ''Causal mechanisms in the social sciences'' (with Petri Ylikoski). Annual Review of Sociology 36: 49–67. * P. Hedström and

Richard Swedberg Richard Swedberg (born 18 May 1948) is a Swedish sociologist. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the Department of Sociology at Cornell University. Education He received a PhD in sociology from Boston College (1978); he also holds a law degr ...

(eds.) ''Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

External links

Institute for Analytical Sociology in Norrköping

An article about Hedström's approach to sociology

International Network of Analytical Sociology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedstrom, Peter Living people Swedish sociologists Harvard University alumni Stockholm University faculty Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Year of birth missing (living people)