Matthew Soener is an Assistant Professor of Sociology. 

What is the focus of your current work and/or subject of your current research?

I work on political economy, inequality, and globalization very broadly. This includes some work on how companies have reorganized around financial and global markets. More recently, I am steering my interests towards understanding climate change and capitalism. With French colleges, I have also done some research on wage inequality in French workplaces.

What classes do you teach? What are some of the topics of those classes?

I always teach a social theory class for undergrads. Since we focus on the "classic" era of theory, we get into the contradictions and possibilities of modernity. I think these questions and dilemmas are just as relevant to us now and I enjoy getting students to think about "big picture" questions about how our world is organized. I have also taught theory seminars for grads (classical and contemporary), a seminar on political economy, and political sociology for both grads and undergrads.

Do you have any recent awards, honors, or publications that you would like to highlight?

My most recent paper focuses on France and so is relevant for the EU Center! With Olivier Godechot and Mirna Safi, I published, "Who Benefits from Migrant and Female Labor? Connecting Wages to Demographic Changes in French Workplaces." This is now online at Sociological Forum. My other most recent paper is about state responses to financial crises. It is focused on the US but I frame it on the work of Nicos Poulantzas. Poulantzas was a left-wing intellectual who was very connected to radical European politics in the 1960s and 1970s which I discuss a little. The paper is called, “Class Power in Hard Times: Excavating Nicos Poulantza’s Theory of the Capitalist State through the History of the 2007-8 Crisis." This appeared in Critical Historical Studies last year.

What is a book (academic or non-academic, in or outside your field) that you think should be more widely read?

For those interested in European politics, I really recommend Aurélie Andry's "Social Europe, the Road not Taken: The Left and European Integration in the Long 1970s." On French politics, Bruno Amable's "Structural Crisis and Institutional Change in Modern Capitalism" is excellent.