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Nina Bandelj

Assistant Professor, Sociology
School of Social Sciences

Ph.D., Princeton University, Sociology

Phone: (949) 824-8872
Fax: (949) 824-4717
Email: nbandelj-at-uci-dot-edu

University of California
4263 Social Science Plaza B
Mail Code: 5100
Irvine, CA 92697

picture of Nina  Bandelj

Research
Interests
Economic Sociology, Culture, Organizations, Social Networks, Political Economy, Globalization, Social Change, Central and Eastern Europe
   
URLs Home Page
   
Executive Committee Member, COR - Center for Organizational Research
   
Co-chair, ISA RC09 Social Transformations and Sociology of Development
   
My book, From Communists to Foreign Capitalists
   
My book, Economic Sociology of Work
   
Academic
Distinctions
2008-10 Elected Council Member, Economic Sociology Section, American Sociological Association

2006-10 Elected Co-Chair, RC09 Social Transformations and Sociology of Development, International Sociological Association

2007 Faculty Career Development Award, University of California, Irvine

2006 Jean Monnet Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy

2005 Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Fellow, Cologne, Germany

2004 Winner of Seymour Martin Lipset Dissertation Award, Society for Comparative Research

2003, 2004 Nominated for Professor of the Month, University of California, Irvine, Campus Village Undergraduate Complex

2003 Graduate Student Paper Award, Society for Advancement of Socio-Economics

2003 American Sociological Association Sociology of Emotions Section Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award Runner-Up

2002 Certificate for Outstanding Participation in the Theory and Research in Comparative Sociology Course, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

2002 DBH Foundation Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper in Sociology at Princeton University

2001 American Sociological Association Comparative and Historical Sociology Section Reinhard Bendix Graduate Student Paper Prize Finalist

2000 Candace Rogers Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Paper by Eastern Sociological Society

1998 Carl Couch Award for Undergraduate Paper by Midwest Sociological Society
   
Research
Abstract
Nina Bandelj’s research engages and intersects two areas of inquiry, economic sociology and social change related to transformations in Central and Eastern Europe and globalization. She is interested in uncovering the social bases of economic processes, at micro and macro levels of analysis, in order to advance new theoretical explanations about economy/society interactions. To do so she collects and analyzes original data employing quantitative and qualitative methods, and often a combination of both.

Bandelj’s research on economy and society is inspired by classical questions raised by Max Weber about social and economic action and Karl Polanyi about market creation and operation. She contributes to the theoretical and empirical agenda in economic sociology by a) examining how a combination of three types of social forces, structural, political and cultural, shape economic phenomena; b) explicating how these social forces constitute, not merely constrain, economic outcomes; c) theorizing micro-economic behavior in conditions of uncertainty as practical social action; and d) extending the economic sociology approach to explain macro-economic trends.

Related to this research agenda in economic sociology, Bandelj’s work also examines, more broadly, the two momentous changes in the late 20th century, the rise of globalization and the collapse of communism. The goal is a) to study these dynamics, i.e. the processes of social change, and explicate the social construction and institutionalization of economic, political, and cultural outcomes that are taken for granted in times of stability, and b) to assess the consequences of these changes, primarily for social inequality.
   
Publications Bandelj, Nina. 2009. “Toward Economic Sociology of Work.” Pp. 1-18 in Economic Sociology of Work, edited by Nina Bandelj. London, UK: Emerald Publishing.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. Editor. 2009. Economic Sociology of Work. London, UK: Emerald Publishing.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2009. “The Global Economy as Instituted Process: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe.” American Sociological Review 74: 128-149.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. Forthcoming. “Giving Mega Attention to Macro Research: How to Handle Challenges of Quantitative Cross-National Data Collection and Analysis.” In Research Methods from the Trenches edited by Eszter Hargittai. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2009. “Emotions in Economic Action and Interaction.” Theory and Society 39 (in press).
   
  Mahutga, Matthew C. and Nina Bandelj. 2008. “Foreign Investment and Inequality: The Natural Experiment of Central and Eastern Europe.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 49 (6): 429-454.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2008. “Economic Objects as Cultural Objects: Discourse on Foreign Investment in Post-socialist Europe.” Socio-Economic Review 6(4): 671-702.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2008. Book Review of The New Old Economy, by Josh Whitford. Social Forces 87(1).
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2008. “Market Transition ‘One MBA at a Time:’ Institutionalization of Management Education in Central and Eastern Europe.” Research Network 1989, WP 2008/5.
   
  Nina Bandelj. 2008. From Communists to Foreign Capitalists: The Social Foundations of Foreign Direct Investment in Postsocialist Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2007. “Negotiating Neo-liberalism: Economic Reform in Central and Eastern Europe.” Pp. 46-74 in Transformations of Local Socio-Economic Practices and Globalization, edited by Ulrike Schuerkens. New York: Routledge.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2007. “Supraterritoriality, Embeddedness, or Both? Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe.” Pp. 3-41 in Globalization: Perspectives from Central and Eastern Europe, edited by Katalin Fabian. London: Elsevier.
   
  Bandelj, Nina and Danica Purg. 2006. “Networks as Resources, Organizational Logic, and Change Mechanism: The Case of Private Business Schools in Postsocialism.” Sociological Forum 21(4): 587-622.
   
  Bandelj, Nina and Matthew C. Mahutga. 2006. "Social Foundations of Income Inequality in Postsocialist Europe." EUI Working Paper RSCAS No. 2006/34.
   
  Bandelj, Nina and Bogdan Radu. 2006. “Consolidation of Democracy in Postcommunist Europe.” Center for the Study of Democracy. Paper 06-04.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2006. “Cultural Understandings of Economic Globalization: Discourse on Foreign Direct Investment in Slovenia.” Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. MPIfG Discussion Paper 06/1.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2006. “Economic Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe: An Economic Sociology Perspective.” Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, 2005-06 European Forum EUF/2005-6/16.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2006. Book Review of Slovenia: From Yugoslavia to the European Union, edited by Mojmir Mrak, Matija Rojec and Carlos Silva-Jáuregui. Europe-Asia Studies 58(1): 135-136.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2005. Book Review of The Sociology of the Economy, edited by Frank Dobbin. Contemporary Sociology 34(3): 261-262.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2004. "Institutional Foundations of Economic Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe (1990-2000)." Center for the Study of Democracy, University of California, Irvine. Working Paper 04-14.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2004. "Negotiating Global, Regional, and National Forces: Foreign Investment in Slovenia." East European Politics and Societies 18(3): 455-480.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2003. “How Method Actors Create Character-Roles.” Sociological Forum 18(3): 387-416.
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2003. "Particularizing the Global: Reception of Foreign Direct Investment in Slovenia." Current Sociology 51(3/4): 377-394. Reprinted in Global Forces and Local Life-Worlds, edited by Ulrike Schuerkens. Pp. 169-184. London: Sage Publications (2004).
   
  Bandelj, Nina. 2002. “Embedded Economies: Social Relations as Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe.” Social Forces 81 (2): 411-444.
   
  Bandelj, Nina, Viviana A. Zelizer, and Ann Morning. 2001. Materials for the Study of Childhood. Princeton, NJ: Department of Sociology, Princeton University.
   
Grants 2006, 2005, 2004 Center for the Study of Democracy Seed Grant
   
2002 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant (with Bruce Western)
   
2002 Center for Migration and Development Research Grant, Princeton University
   
2001-2002 European Political Economy Infrastructure Consortium Junior Doctoral Researcher Scholarship
   
2001-2002 Center of International Studies MacArthur Dissertation Fellowship, Princeton University Prize Fellowship
   
2001 American Sociological Association Teaching Enhancement Grant (with Wendy Cadge and Eszter Hargittai)
   
1999-2001 Noah Cotsen Junior Teaching Fellowship, Princeton University Prize Fellowship
   
2007 CORCL Cultural Diversity Grant, University of California, Irvine
   
2007 Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia Grant (PI: Andrej Rus)
   
Professional
Societies
American Sociological Association
International Sociological Association
Society for Advancement of Socio-Economics
International Institute of Sociology
Council of European Studies
Research Network 1989
   
Research Centers Center for the Study of Democracy
   
Center for Organizational Research
   
   
Link to this profile http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5053
   
Last updated 05/19/2009