Edward Walker
Edward Walker
Professor & Chair
Office: 235 Haines Hall
Email: walker@soc.ucla.edu
Phone: 310-206-2918
Biography
I am a sociologist interested in the political activities of corporations and social movements.
My research has investigated how corporations intervene in public life through mobilizing grassroots campaigns and partnering with nonprofit organizations, the ways that business contexts structure the tactical choices of protest groups, and the relationship between fully professionalized (or “non-membership”) advocacy organizations and traditional membership organizations. I have also studied community-based organizations’ efforts to build power for underrepresented citizens, charitable giving by firms in the health sector, and media coverage of protest. Additionally, my work has investigated the challenges inherent in promoting civic participation and empowered governance in a context of heightened inequalities, in the co-edited Democratizing Inequalities volume.
More recently, my research has investigated the politics of hydraulic fracturing, in a series of projects respectively with Bogdan Vasi and Colin Jerolmack. The first paper with Vasi, on the influence of the Gasland documentary on fracking politics, was published in the American Sociological Review and won article awards in 2016 from both the ASA Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements and the ASA Section on Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology. The paper with Jerolmack appears in the American Journal of Sociology.
My book, Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. The book won the Charles Tilly Award from the American Sociological Association section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements. Select media coverage related to the book: New York Times, Time, Washington Post (1), Washington Post (2), The Atlantic, San Francisco Chronicle, Mashable, CSPAN BookTV.
Please see my personal homepage for links to articles and further information.
Publications
Books
Grassroots for Hire: Public Affairs Consultants in American Democracy. 2014. Cambridge University Press.
(Purchase: Amazon, Cambridge).
Democratizing Inequalities: Pitfalls and Unrealized Promises of the New Public Participation. 2015. NYU Press.
(edited with Caroline W. Lee and Michael McQuarrie).
(Purchase: Amazon, NYU Press).
Selected Articles
Walker, Edward T. and Ion Bogdan Vasi. Forthcoming. “Boosting Your Enemies to Garner the Sympathy of Friends: Evidence from Communication Strategies by a Contested Industry.” Social Problems.
Wen, Yuni, Edward T. Walker, and Lori Yue. Forthcoming. “By the People and for the People: Double-Edged Effects of Platform User-Mobilization on Public Policies.” Academy of Management Discoveries.
Vasi, Ion Bogdan and Edward T. Walker. Forthcoming 2024. “Subnational Environmental Policy: Trends and Issues.” Annual Review of Sociology.
Walker, Edward T., Tijs van den Broek, Anna Priante, and Michel Ehrenhard. 2023. “Patient-Activist or Ally? Assessing the Effectiveness of Conscience and Beneficiary Constituents in Disease Advocacy Fundraising.” Sociology of Health and Illness 45(8): 1652-1672.
Walker, Edward T. and Andrew N. Le. 2023. “Poisoning the Well: How Astroturfing Harms Trust in Advocacy Organizations.” Social Currents 10(2): 184-202.
Walker, Edward T. and Ion Bogdan Vasi. 2022. “Industry Repertoires: How Transgressive and Conventional Industry Associations Seek to Counter Contention.” American Behavioral Scientist 66(9): 1238-1262.
Walker, Edward T. and Lina M. Stepick. 2020. “Valuing the Cause: A Theory of Authenticity in Social Movements.” Mobilization 25 (1): 1-25.
Jerolmack, Colin and Edward T. Walker. 2018. “Please in My Backyard: Quiet Mobilization in Support of Fracking in an Appalachian Community.” American Journal of Sociology 124(2): 479- 516.
“‘No Fracking Way!’ Documentary Film, Discursive Opportunity, and Local Opposition against Hydraulic Fracturing in the United States, 2010 to 2013.” American Sociological Review 80(5): 934-59 (2015). (with Bogdan Vasi, John Johnson, and Hui Fen Tan).
“Signaling Responsibility, Deflecting Controversy: Strategic and Institutional Influences on the Charitable Giving of Corporate Foundations in the Health Sector.” Research in Political Sociology 21: 201-33 (2013).
“Putting a Face on the Issue: Corporate Stakeholder Mobilization in Professional Grassroots Lobbying Campaigns.” Business & Society 51(4): 619-59 (2012).
“Social Movements, Organizations, and Fields: A Decade of Theoretical Integration.” Contemporary Sociology 41(5): 576-587 (2012).
“Replacing Members with Managers? Mutualism among Membership and Non-Membership Advocacy Organizations in the U.S.”American Journal of Sociology 116(4): 1284-1337 (2011). (with John D. McCarthy and Frank R. Baumgartner).
“Legitimacy, Strategy, and Resources in the Survival of Community-Based Organizations.” Social Problems 57(3): 315-340 (2010, lead article) (with John D. McCarthy).
“Privatizing Participation: Civic Change and the Organizational Dynamics of Grassroots Lobbying Firms.” American Sociological Review 74(1): 83-105 (2009).
“Confronting the State, the Corporation, and the Academy: The Influence of Institutional Targets on Social Movement Repertoires.” American Journal of Sociology 114(1): 35-76 (2008). (with Andrew W. Martin and John D. McCarthy).
“Contingent Pathways from Joiner to Activist: The Indirect Effect of Participation in Voluntary Associations on Civic Engagement.” Sociological Forum 23(1): 116-143 (2008).
Awards & Grants
Awards
CASBS Fellowship, Stanford University (2021-22)
Best Article Award, ASA Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section (2016)
Best Article Award, ASA Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Section (2016)
Charles Tilly Award for Best Book, ASA Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section (2015)
Outstanding Article Award, Honorable mention, Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (2014)
Faculty Fellowship Award, UCLA Center for American Politics and Public Policy (2014)
UCLA Faculty Career Development Award (2013)
Selected Grants
“Corporate Net Zero Goals for Decarbonization.” National Science Foundation (2023-25)(with Bodi Vasi)
“Sources and Impacts of the Movement for Corporate Political Accountability.” National Science Foundation (2018-21).
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellowship in Health Policy Research, University of Michigan, 2009-11.
“The Influence of Professional Grassroots Lobbying Campaigns on Civic and Political Engagement.” National Science Foundation Sociology and Political Science (2009).
“Democratizing Inequalities: Participation without Parity?” ASA Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline Grant (2009). (with Caroline W. Lee and Michael McQuarrie).
“A Proposal to Chronicle More Than a Decade of Change in a Sample of Neighborhood and Community Based Organizations.” Community Action Research Initiative, American Sociological Association Spivack Program in Applied Social Research and Social Policy (2007). (with John D. McCarthy).
