Assistant Professor of Sociology

Andrew Buck (BA Wisconsin, MA Cornell, PhD Columbia) has interests in social network analysis, political sociology and economic sociology. He has published articles exploring the relationship between social networks and politics based on an in-depth case study of elites in a Russian city. He also published research on enterprise restructuring in Russia that draws on ideas from economic sociology.

One of his current research projects compares letters to the editor from Soviet and post-Soviet newspapers to understand how democracy changes the way citizens publicly express their claims about politics. He published a paper on the language of clientelism that was based on letters to the editor from 1990s Russia.

Another project he is working on looks at the corporate networks and social origins of Britain’s top business leaders. He also collaborates on a project comparing democratic trajectories of countries from the former Soviet Union.

Publications

• Buck, Andrew. 2010. “Network Mobilization and the Origins of the Putin Coalition.” The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 25, 4 (December): 445-470. [Winner, JCSTP Prize 2010 for best article, by the editors of JCSTP, 2011].
• Buck, Andrew. 2007. "Coalition Politics in a Post-Socialist Russian City, 1994-2000." Sociological Forum 28, 3 (December): 500-531.
• Buck, Andrew. 2007. “Elite Networks and Worldviews during the Yeltsin Years.” Europe-Asia Studies 59, 4 (June): 643-661.
• Buck, Andrew. 2006. “Post-Socialist Patronage: Expressions of Resistance and Loyalty.” Studies in Comparative International Development 41, 3 (Fall): 3-24. [Lead article]
• Buck, Andrew. 1999. "Networks of Governance and Privatization: A View from Provincial Russia." Political Power and Social Theory 13: 81-108.

Teaching

• Principles of Sociology
• Social Problems
• Social Networks
• Sociological Imagination
• Social Movements