Ann Swidler

Ann Swidler (born December 11, 1944) is an American sociologist and professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Swidler is most commonly known as a cultural sociologist and authored one of the most-cited articles in sociology, "Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies".

Early life and career Swidler was born on December 11, 1944. She was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her father was an attorney with the Tennessee Valley Authority and her mother was a secretary. In 2013 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Major works

Habits of the Heart (1985), co-authored with Robert Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, and Steven M. Tipton, was finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 1986, won the Los Angeles Times Book Award in 1985 and received Highest Honors for a Book in Education from the American Educational Studies Association. Habits of the Heart sold over 500,000 copies which, according to sociologist Edward Tiryakian, places the work among "that rare breed of sociological works: a literary event, with sales figures beyond the total number of practicing sociologists in the world, past and present."

"Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies" (1986), argues that rather than just a form of internalized norms controlling behavior—argued by, for instance, Talcott Parsons—culture is a collection or "tool-kit" that people draw on to accomplish particular strategies of action. This is one of the most widely cited articles in sociology