Smelser, Neil J.

Smelser, Neil J. (Joseph) (1930–  ) sociologist; born in Kahoka, Mo. Educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities and trained as a psychoanalyst, he taught at the University of California: Berkeley (1958). His works on comparative methodology, economic development, social change, and collective behavior include Sociology of Economic Life (1963, later revised), Sociological Theory (1976), and Social Paralysis and Social Change (1991).