Mark Horowitz

Associate Professor of Sociology
Department of Sociology Anthropology Social Work and Criminal Justice

My scholarship is driven by questions central to the critical tradition in social theory: How do we advance—as a society and global community—toward a more equal, peaceful and sustainable future? What are the obstacles and opportunities in this regard? Grappling with these concerns suggests that intersecting political-economic and social-psychological factors are decisive. Historically-inherited power relations within the broader capitalist economy are a major consideration. Yet critically important from the standpoint of constructing a response is to examine people’s social identities and consciousness. Such concerns animated my investigation of global factory workers’ attitudes toward the fairness of their wages in my dissertation and published research.

My current work examines the roots of social scientific controversies. The takeaway from such research is that fostering consensus regarding social problems is bedeviled by people’s conflicting moral intuitions and social identities. It is my hope that understanding our social psychological tendencies in the context of broader political-economic forces holds significant promise toward building a more sustainable future.