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 Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield ( ), is a town and civil parish in the city of Birmingham, West Midlands County, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south of L ...

, England. He is a member of

Birmingham Humanists The Birmingham Humanist Group was formed on 23 May 1962 at the Arden Hotel, New Street, Birmingham, England, at a meeting convened by Dr Anthony Brierley. It changed its name to Birmingham Humanists (Brum Hums) in 2000 and voted to become a Partn ...

. He is married and has two children. He graduated with a BSc. in Economics from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1961. Afterwards he worked as a teacher at the City of Birmingham College of Commerce. In 1964, he moved York as an assistant lecturer, and received his PhD in 1968 from the University of London. He is Professor Emeritus at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, with 60 years of service. From 1974 to 1976 he was a Visiting Professor at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a Public university, public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It maintains three campuses in Greater Vancouver, respectively located in Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, British Columbia, Surrey, and ...

. In 1994 he was a Research Fellow at

Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. N ...

; In 1999, he was Visiting Research Fellow at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

Cultic milieu

In a 1972 essay, Campbell coined the theory of the "cultic milieu": that within every society there is a minuscule but devoted contingent of seekers of forbidden or esoteric knowledge. His initial development of the idea largely focused on the manifestations of "cultic" religious groups in the 1960s and 1970s, which dissolved only to reform in different ways.

Publications

* 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. (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.

References

External links

* * Interview with Laurie Taylor o
Thinking Aloud
-18 December 2019 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Colin 1940 births British sociologists Living people Academics of the University of York People from Sutton Coldfield