My research interests have brought me to study a variety of different empirical cases with colleagues at several different universities. Current and past research projects are described below. Click on the links to access publications and working papers.
The persistence and re-formation of close personal ties
This project uses the longitudinal component of the Urban Communes Data Set to examine the persistence and re-formation of personal ties among the former members of 60 communes from 1974 to 2000. John Levi Martin, Benjamin Zablocki, and I find that not only do changes in local network structures predict which ties do and do not persist, but that these dynamics are bound up with changes in the geographic distance between former commune members. A follow-up paper with Kristin George and John Levi Martin will explore the effects of power and authority within communes on patterns of tie retention and dissolution among former members.
Jacob Habinek, John Levi Martin, and Benjamin D. Zablocki. 2015. “Double-Embeddedness: Spatial and Relational Contexts of the Persistence and Re-Formation of Close Personal Ties.” Social Networks 42: 27-41.
Jacob Habinek, John Levi Martin, and Benjamin D. Zablocki. 2015. “Double-Embeddedness: Spatial and Relational Contexts of the Persistence and Re-Formation of Close Personal Ties.” Social Networks 42: 27-41.
The financialization of U.S. higher education
I am interested in the changing role of finance and financial markets in the organization of higher education in the United States. Daniel Lee Kleinman, Steven Vallas, and I have written a book chapter on the history of market discourse in academic administration. Currently, together with Charlie Eaton and several other colleagues, I am collecting data on the financial market activities of U.S. colleges and universities from 2002 to 2012. Our initial findings show that the costs of borrowing capital have doubled in the past decade and are borne by a wide swathe of colleges, universities, and their students, but that revenues from financial investment are concentrated among the richest five percent of colleges. This work has received coverage from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Forbes, The Nation, and The Huffington Post. Further information is also available at the Debt and Society blog maintained by the University of California’s Berkeley’s Center for Culture, Organizations, and Politics.
Charlie Eaton, Jacob Habinek, Adam Goldstein, Cyrus Dioun, Daniela García Santibáñez Godoy, and Robert Osley-Thomas. 2016. “The Financialization of U.S. Higher Education.” Socio-Economic Review 14: 507-535.
Charlie Eaton, Adam Goldstein, Jacob Habinek, Mukul Kumar, Tamera Lee Stover, and Alex Roehrkasse. “Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Financialization of Governance at the University of California.” Center for Culture, Organizations, and Politics Working Paper #2013-02.
Charlie Eaton, Jacob Habinek, Mukul Kumar, Tamera Lee Stover, Alex Roehrkasse, and Jeremy Thompson. 2013. “Swapping Our Future: How Students and Taxpayers Are Funding Risky UC Borrowing and Wall Street Profits." Berkeley Journal of Sociology 57: 179-199.
Daniel Lee Kleinman, Jacob Habinek, and Steve Vallas. 2011. “Codes of Commerce: The Uses of Business Rhetoric in American Academia, 1960-2000.” In Hermanowicz, Joseph, ed., The American Academic Profession: Transformation in Contemporary Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: 274-294.
Charlie Eaton, Jacob Habinek, Adam Goldstein, Cyrus Dioun, Daniela García Santibáñez Godoy, and Robert Osley-Thomas. 2016. “The Financialization of U.S. Higher Education.” Socio-Economic Review 14: 507-535.
Charlie Eaton, Adam Goldstein, Jacob Habinek, Mukul Kumar, Tamera Lee Stover, and Alex Roehrkasse. “Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Financialization of Governance at the University of California.” Center for Culture, Organizations, and Politics Working Paper #2013-02.
Charlie Eaton, Jacob Habinek, Mukul Kumar, Tamera Lee Stover, Alex Roehrkasse, and Jeremy Thompson. 2013. “Swapping Our Future: How Students and Taxpayers Are Funding Risky UC Borrowing and Wall Street Profits." Berkeley Journal of Sociology 57: 179-199.
Daniel Lee Kleinman, Jacob Habinek, and Steve Vallas. 2011. “Codes of Commerce: The Uses of Business Rhetoric in American Academia, 1960-2000.” In Hermanowicz, Joseph, ed., The American Academic Profession: Transformation in Contemporary Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: 274-294.
The evolution of the early U.S. magazine industry
Together with Heather Haveman I have examined the emergence of early U.S. magazine industry from its colonial origins to the eve of the Civil War. One paper, written with Heather Haveman and Leo Goodman and published in the Administrative Science Quarterly, examines how the rapid expansion of the publishing industry in the antebellum United States reshaped magazine entrepreneurship. We use a novel application of the log-linear approach to show that gains by entrepreneurs were uneven across different occupations and locations.
Heather A. Haveman, Jacob Habinek, and Leo A. Goodman. 2012. “How Entrepreneurship Evolves: The Founders of New Magazines in America, 1741–1860.” Administrative Science Quarterly 57: 585-624.
Heather A. Haveman, Jacob Habinek, and Leo A. Goodman. 2012. “How Entrepreneurship Evolves: The Founders of New Magazines in America, 1741–1860.” Administrative Science Quarterly 57: 585-624.