Paul Lichterman

About

Paul Lichterman is a Professor of Sociology and Religion at USC Dornsife. His specialty areas include culture, civic organizations and social movements, religion, morality, racial identity construction, qualitative methodology, and theory. Much of his research investigates how people work collectively to address social problems in a socially unequal and culturally diverse society. His work explores the social and cultural dynamics of civic organizations, volunteer groups, and social movements, aiming to understand how culture shapes action in everyday life and how individuals use culture in their social practices. Lichterman's notable contributions include his first book, The Search for Political Community, which examined grassroots environmentalism, and his second book, Elusive Togetherness, which compared experiences of religiously sponsored community service groups responding to welfare reforms in the U.S. His recent publication, How Civic Action Works: Fighting for Housing in Los Angeles, offers an ethnographic study of collective action to promote affordable housing and assist unhoused populations, challenging traditional notions of strategic success and proposing a new framework for studying civic engagement. His research has been recognized with awards from the ASA and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and his work has been translated into multiple languages. Currently, he is studying the morality and politics of anti-racism in the U.S., especially…

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Aesthetics
• History
• Physics
• Anthropology
• Psychology
• Environmental ethics
• Epistemology

Selected publications

• How Civic Action Works

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2021 · 23 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• From Culture to Claimsmaking

  Sociological Theory · 2020 · 16 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Conceptual approaches to claimsmaking often feature the overarching symbolic templates of political culture or else the strategic actor of the social movement framing approach. Both approaches have value, but neither shows adequately how cultural context influences claimsmaking in everyday situations. To better understand cultural context and situated claimsmaking together, we retheorize the concept of discursive field, showing how such a field is sustained through interaction. Claimsmakers craf…

  DOI

• How Civic Action Works : Fighting for Housing in Los Angeles

  2020 · 11 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  The ways that social advocates organize to fight unaffordable housing and homelessness in Los Angeles, illuminated by a new conceptual framework for studying collective actionHow Civic Action Works renews the tradition of inquiry into collective, social problem solving. Paul Lichterman follows grassroots activists, nonprofit organization staff, and community service volunteers in three coalitions and twelve organizations in Los Angeles as they campaign for affordable housing, develop new housing…

• “Qualitative Research” Is a Moving Target

  Qualitative Sociology · 2021-11-15 · 8 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• How Civic Action Works

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2020-12-08 · 4 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  This book renews the tradition of inquiry into collective, social problem-solving. The book follows grassroots activists, nonprofit organization staff, and community service volunteers in three coalitions and twelve organizations in Los Angeles as they campaign for affordable housing, develop new housing, or address homelessness. The book shows that to understand how social advocates build their campaigns, craft claims, and choose goals, we need to move beyond well-established thinking about wha…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Nina Eliasoph

  University of Southern California

  11 shared

• Daniel Céfaï

  7 shared

• Marion Carrel

  5 shared

• Rubina Raja

  Aarhus University

  5 shared

• Jörg Rüpke

  5 shared

• Éric Doidy

  Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie Appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux

  4 shared

• Julien Talpin

  Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Administratives, Politiques et Sociales

  3 shared

• Anna‐Katharina Rieger

  3 shared

Awards & honors

• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award

Similar researchers at University of Southern California

• Brian Finchh-40
• Jennifer Hookh-30
• Lynne Casperh-28