Colin Campbell

Colin Campbell (born 1940) is a British sociologist known for his work on cultural change, consumerism, religion, and Weberian action theory.

Career Colin Campbell was born in 1940 in Sutton Coldfield, England. He was a founder member of Birmingham Humanists. He is married and has two children. From 1974 to 1976 he was a Visiting Professor at Simon Fraser University. In 1994 he was a Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford; In 1998 he was Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Cultural Pluralism at the Candido Mendes University in Rio de Janeiro. In 1999, he was Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian National University.

The Myth of Social Action In a 1996 book, The Myth of Social Action, Campbell criticizes what he argues was the dominant "social situationist" approach in sociological theory. Describing social situationism as a paradigm holding that "actions can be identified only by reference to the social context in which they occur," Campbell argues that this central tenet is an amalgamation of several traditions that gained prominence in sociology, including the linguistic turn, social interactionism, and the criticism of motives in cultural theory (e.g., Mills ). Campbell claims that this paradigm restricts sociology's attention without justification, and he calls for alternative paradigms that focus on human action in its full breadth.

Publications

Campbell, Colin. (2025). In Search of the Real Max Weber: a Dynamic Interpretive Approach to Action and Agency. Palgrave Macmillan. Campbell, Colin. (2021). Consumption and Consumer Society: The Craft Consumer and Other Essays. Palgrave Macmillan.

Campbell, Colin. (2007) The Easternization of The West: A Thematic Account Of Cultural Change in the Modern Era. Paradigm Publishers. Campbell, Colin, Barbossa, Livia, (eds) (2006) Cultura, Consumo and Identidade. Published by FGV. Campbell, Colin, Falk, Pasi (eds) (1997) The Shopping Experience. Sage.

Campbell, Colin (1987) The Romantic Ethic and the Spirit of Modern Consumerism. Basil Blackwell. Italian edition, (1992) published by Edizioni Lavoro. Slovenian edition, (2001) published by Studia Humanitatis. Portuguese edition, (2002) published by Paulo Rocco. Chinese edition, (2005) published by National Academy for Educational Research. Korean Edition, (2010) published by The National Research Foundation of Korea. New Extended Edition. (2018) published by Palgrave Macmillan. Campbell, Colin. (1971) Toward A Sociology of Irreligion. London: Macmillan. Spanish Edition published, (1977) by Technos. Revised Edition, (2013) published Alcuin Academics.

Selected articles

Campbell, Colin. (2024). `The Cultic Milieu and the Spiritual Turn: The Need for Theoretical Revision. Pp 59-86 In Dick Houtman and Galen Watts (eds.), The Shape of Spirituality: The Public Significance of a New Religious Formation. Columbia University Press. Campbell, Colin. (2009). 'Distinguishing the Power of Agency from Agentic Power: A Note on Weber and the “Black Box” of Personal Agency' Sociological Theory 27 (4): 407-418. Campbell, Colin. (2006). Do Today’s Sociologists Really Appreciate Weber’s essay The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism?’ Sociological Review 54 (2) 207-223. Campbell, Colin. (1996) `Half-Belief and the paradox of instrumental activism: A theory of modern superstition, British Journal of Sociology 47 (1) 151-165 Campbell, Colin. (1995). "Conspicuous Confusion? A Critique of Veblen's Theory of Conspicuous Consumption" Sociological Theory 13 1, 37-47. Campbell, Colin. (1992). `In Defence of the Traditional Concept of Action in Sociology’, The Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 22, 1, 1-23. Campbell, Colin. (1982). `A Dubious Distinction? An Inquiry into the Value and Use of Merton's concepts of Latent and Manifest Function’, American Sociological Review 47, 29-44. Campbell, Colin. (1980) Things We said Today: the complete lyrics and a concordance to the Beatles’ lyrics 1962-1970 (with Allan Murphy). Ann Arbor, MI The Pierian Press. Campbell, Colin. (1972) `The Cult, the Cultic Milieu and Secularisation’ A Sociological Yearbook of Religion in Britain 5, 119-36. Reprinted in Steve Bruce (ed.) (1995) The Sociology of Religion Vol II (The International Library of Critical Writings in Sociology), Elgar. And in Jeffrey Kaplan and Helene Lööw (eds) (2002), The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization, Altamira Press.