John Urry is a British sociologist, Professor at Lancaster University

Lancaster University

Lancaster University, officially The University of Lancaster, is a leading research-intensive British university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established by Royal Charter in 1964 and initially based in St Leonard's Gate until moving to a purpose-built 300 acre campus at...

. He is noted for work in the fields of the sociology of tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 and mobility.

He has written books on many other aspects of modern society including the transition away from 'organised capitalism', the sociology of nature and environmentalism, and social theory in general.

Urry is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

Royal Society of Arts

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...

, a Founding Academician of the UK Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences

Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences

The Academy of Social Sciences is a research body in the UK. , the Academy was composed of over 450 Academicians and 32 Learned Societies. Academicians are distinguished scholars and practitioners from academia and the public and private sectors...

 and a Visiting Professor at both Bristol and Roskilde Geography Departments.

Born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and educated at the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys School, Urry gained his first degrees from Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

 in 1967, a ‘double first' B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 and M.A. in Economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

, before going on to gain his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in Sociology from the same institution in 1972. He arrived at Lancaster University Sociology department as a lecturer in 1970, becoming head of department in 1983 and a professor in 1985.

Research interests

His original research interests were in the sociology of power and revolution and this resulted in the publication of Reference Groups and the Theory of Revolution (1973) and Power in Britain (1973).

Early work at Lancaster was in the area of social theory and the philosophy of the social sciences. This resulted in the jointly written Social Theory as Science, (1975, 1982), which set out the main features of the realist philosophy of science. Critical confrontation with a number of Marxist traditions, of Althusserian structuralism, German state theory, and neo-Gramscian, resulted in The Anatomy of Capitalist Societies (1981).

Regionalism

First, there was the urban and regional research mainly associated with the Lancaster Regionalism Group. Collaborative research resulted in Localities, Class and Gender (1985) and Restructuring. Place, Class and Gender (1990) Two particular themes have been pursued: the relationship between society and space (as in the Social Relations and Spatial Structures, co-edited with Derek Gregory, 1985); and the possibilities of developing local economic policies (as in Place, Policy and Politics, 1990).

Economic & Social Change

The second area of research has been in the more general dimensions of economic and social change in western capitalist societies. This has resulted in three jointly written books, Capital, Labour and the Middle Classes (1983); The End of Organized Capitalism (1987); and Economies of Signs and Space (1994; latter two with Scott Lash

Scott Lash

Scott Lash is a professor of sociology and cultural studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London.He took a BSc as in Psychology from the University of Michigan, an MA in Sociology from Northwestern University, and a PhD from the London School of Economics . Lash began his teaching career as...

).

Consumer & Tourism Services

Thirdly, research focused upon one particular set of industries that are of particular significance in contemporary western societies, namely consumer services and especially tourist-related services. The economic, social, environmental and cultural implications of such developments can be seen in The Tourist Gaze (1990, 2002: 2nd edn.), Consuming Places (1995), Touring Cultures (1997, edited with Chris Rojek), Tourism Mobilities (2004, edited with Mimi Sheller), and Performing Tourist Places (with J-O Barenholdt, M Haldrup, J. Larsen). This concern was extended to issues of environmental change and the 'sociology of nature' see Contested Natures (1998) and Bodies of Nature (2001) (both with Phil Macnaghten).

Mobility

Fourthly, there are various research projects and publications relating to the changing nature of mobility. Publications include: Sociology Beyond Societies (2000), a special issue of Theory, Culture and Society, (Aug 2004 on Automobilities coedited with Mike Feathersone, Nigel Thrift); Mobile Technologies of the City (2006; coedited with Mimi Sheller

Mimi Sheller

Mimi Sheller is a professor of sociology and the founding Director of the New Mobilities Research and Policy Center at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She attended Harvard University where she earned an A.B in History and Literature in 1988. She received an M.A. in Sociology and Historical...

. John Urry also directs the Centre for Mobilities Research.

Complexity theory

Finally , John Urry has been exploring some implications of complexity theory

Complex systems

Complex systems present problems in mathematical modelling.The equations from which complex system models are developed generally derive from statistical physics, information theory and non-linear dynamics, and represent organized but unpredictable behaviors of systems of nature that are considered...

 for the social sciences. Publications here include Global Complexity (2003), and Complexity, a special double issue of Theory, Culture & Society

Theory, Culture & Society

Theory, Culture & Society is a peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1982 and covers sociology, cultural, and social theory. It is published by SAGE Publications. The editor-in-chief is Mike Featherstone...

 (2005).

He is also one of the founding editors of the new journal Mobilities, and has been the editor of the International Library of Sociology since 1990 (Routledge).

Books published

(excluding foreign language editions; books translated into 10+ languages)

• 1973
  • Reference Groups and the Theory of Revolution, Routledge and Kegan Paul
  • Power in Britain, Heinemann Education (co edited with John Wakeford)
• 1975 Social Theory as Science, Routledge and Kegan Paul (with Russell Keat)
• 1981 The Anatomy of Capitalist Societies, Macmillan
• 1982 Social Theory as Science, Second Edition, Routledge and Kegan Paul (with Russell Keat)
• 1983 Capital, Labour and the Middle Classes, Allen and Unwin (with Nick Abercrombie)
• 1985
  • Social Relations and Spatial Structures, Macmillan (co edited with Derek Gregory)
  • Localities, Class, and Gender, Pion (with Lancaster Regionalism Group)
• 1987 The End of Organized Capitalism, Polity (with Scott Lash)
• 1988 Contemporary British Society, Polity (with Nick Abercrombie, Alan Warde, Keith Soothill, Sylvia Walby).
• 1989-96 Schools of Thought in Sociology, General Editor of 18 vols, Edward Elgar.
• 1990
  • Localities, Policies, Politics. Do Localities Matter?, Hutchinson (co edited with Michael Harloe, Chris Pickvance).
  • Restructuring. Place, Class and Gender, Sage (with other members of the Lancaster Regionalism Group).
  • The Tourist Gaze, Sage.
• 1994
  • Economies of Signs and Space, Sage (with Scott Lash)
  • Contemporary British Society, Second Edition, Polity (with Nick Abercrombie, Alan Warde, Keith Soothill, Sylvia Walby
    Sylvia Walby
    Sylvia Walby OBE, is one of the world's leading authorities on gender. She is a British sociologist, currently Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University...
    
    )
  • Leisure Landscapes, Main Report and Background Papers, CPRE (with Gordon Clark, Jan Darrall, Robin Grove-White, Phil Macnaghten)
• 1995 Consuming Places, Routledge
• 1997 Touring Cultures, Routledge (co edited with Chris Rojek)
• 1998 Contested Natures, Sage (with Phil Macnaghten)
• 2000
  • "Sociology for the New Millennium." Special issue of the British Journal of Sociology (commissioned: contributors include Castells, Wallerstein, Beck, Sassen, Therborn)
  • Sociology beyond Societies, Routledge
  • Contemporary British Society, Third Edition, Polity (with Nick Abercrombie, Alan Warde et al.)
  • "Bodies of Nature". Special issue of Body and Society 6 (commissioned: co edited with Phil Macnaghten)
• 2001 Bodies of Nature. Sage (co edited with Phil Macnaghten)
• 2002 The Tourist Gaze. Second Edition, Sage
• 2003 Global Complexity, Polity
• 2004
  • "Presence-Absence." Special issue of Environment and Planning A: Society and Space 22 (co edited with Michel Callon and John Law)
  • "Automobilities." Special issue of Theory, Culture and Society 21 (co edited with Mike Featherstone and Nigel Thrift)
  • Tourism Mobilities. Places to Play, Places in Play, Routledge (co edited with Mimi Sheller)
  • Performing Tourist Places, Ashgate (with Bærenholdt, J. O., Haldrup, M., Larsen, J.)
• 2005
  • "Complexity." Special Issue of Theory, Culture and Society 22 1- 270
  • Automobilities. London: Sage (co edited with Featherstone, M., Thrift, N.) 285 pp.
  • Sociologie de Mobilités: Une nouvelle frontiére pour la sociologie?, Paris, Armand Colin, 251pp.
• 2006
  • "Mobilities and Materialities." Special issue of Environment and Planning A (co-edited with M. Sheller)
  • Mobile Technologies of the City, London: Routledge (coedited with M. Sheller)
  • Mobilities, Polity (in preparation)
  • Mobilities, Geographies, Networks, London: Ashgate (with J. Larsen, K.Axhausen)

External links

Lectures

• Lecture (Video/Audio) Mobility Futures
• Lecture (Video/Audio) Mobility Futures at World-Information City conference in Paris 2009