Sean Safford

Sean Safford was previously an Assistant Professor of Organizations and Strategy at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, a Lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School.

His research is on social, economic and technological change, particularly in mature industrial economies, as well as historical social network analysis. He was a lead researcher with the MIT Local Innovation Systems Project which examined the role of universities in economic development in the US and several countries around the world.

Safford earned his Bachelor’s degree at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1994. In 2004, he received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. His dissertation, “Why the Garden Club Couldn’t Save Youngstown: Social Capital and the Transformation of the Rust Belt,” which won the Sage-Louis Pondy Prize for best paper from a dissertation by the Academy of Management’s Organization and Management Theory Section as well as Best Paper from a Dissertation from the Economic Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, was published by Harvard University Press in 2009.

Academic Appointments

• 2011-Present : Associate Professor. Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), Centre de Sociologie des Organizations. Paris, France.
• 2010-2011 : Visiting Professor. University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Management. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• 2005-2010 : Assistant Professor. University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Chicago, Illinois.
• 2004-2005 : Lecturer. London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Industrial Relations. London, England.

Education

• 2004 : Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management.
• 1994 : B.S., Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Research Programs

• Governance, economic organizations program
• Public policy, transformations of the state program
• Work, employment, professions program