Bruce Carruthers
John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology
- b-carruthers@northwestern.edu
- (847) 467-1251
- 1808 Chicago Ave, room 203
- Office Hours: Mondays 3:00-4:30pm, by appointment
- Make an appointment by email
Area(s) of Interest
Comparative Sociology, Economy and Society, Sociology of Law, Sociology of Organizations
Relevant Links
Comparative Historical Social Science
Biography
At Northwestern, Carruthers is involved in the graduate Comparative Historical Social Science (CHSS) program and the Kellogg-Sociology Joint-PhD program.
His current research projects include a study of the historical evolution of credit as a problem in the sociology of trust, regulatory arbitrage, what modern derivatives markets reveal about the relationship between law and capitalism, the adoption of “for-profit” features by U.S. museums, and the regulation of credit for poor people in early 20th-century America. He has had visiting fellowships at the Russell Sage Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Library of Congress, and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, and received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He is methodologically agnostic, and does not believe that the qualitative/quantitative distinction is worth fighting over. Northwestern is Carruthers’ first teaching position.
Carruthers has authored or co-authored five books, City of Capital: Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution (Princeton, 1996), Rescuing Business: The Making of Corporate Bankruptcy Law in England and the United States (Oxford, 1998), Economy/Society: Markets, Meanings and Social Structure (Pine Forge Press, 2000), Bankrupt: Global Lawmaking and Systemic Financial Crisis (Stanford, 2009), and Money and Credit: A Sociological Approach (Polity Press, 2010).
Courses Taught
Books
Money and Credit: A Sociological Approach
Polity Press, 2010
Bankrupt: Global Lawmaking and Systemic Financial Crisis
Stanford, 2009
City of Capital: Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution
Princeton, 1996
Economy/Society: Markets, Meanings
Pine Forge Press, 2000
Rescuing Business: The Making of Corporate Bankruptcy Law in England and the United States
Oxford, 1998
Publications
Accounting for Rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the Rhetoric of Economic Rationality
With Wendy Nelson Espeland; ASA, American Journal of Sociology, 1991
A Sociology of Bubbles
Contexts, 2009
The Color of Money and the Nature of Value: Greenbacks and Gold in Postbellum America
With Sarah Babb; The American Journal of Sociology; The University of Chicago Press, 1996
The Social Structure of Liquidity: Flexibility, Markets, and States
With Arthur L. Stinchcombe; Theory and Society, 1999