Ed Collom
Office
Office Hours Spring 2013
Tuesday/Thursday 9:00-10:00Contact Information
I received my PhD in Sociology from the University of California-Riverside in June 2001 and became Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern Maine in September 2001. In September 2007 I was promoted to Associate Professor. From June 2008 through May 2011 I served as Chair of Sociology. In June 2011 I became President of USM AFUM, our faculty union.
As native Southern Californians, my family and I have adjusted well to Maine and are particularly enjoying the great city of Portland.
Research Interests
The broad areas of specialization that I work in are social movements, the sociology of work, political sociology, and social inequality. I am primarily a quantitative survey researcher, but also employ social network analysis regularly. My research tends to surround the study of alternative social forms. I've been focusing on three areas in particular: community currency (an alternative to the mainstream economy), home schooling (an alternative to the public education system), and workplace democracy (an alternative to bureaucratic control structures). All three of these are "bottom-up" initiatives to empower the marginalized. Community currencies and home schooling are forms of what I call "alternative social movements."
Recent Publications
Ed Collom, Judith N. Lasker, and Corinne Kyriacou. Equal Time, Equal Value: Community Currencies and Time Banking in the US. Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing (August 2012).
"Motivations and Differential Participation in a Community Currency System: The Dynamics within a Local Social Movement Organization," Sociological Forum, 26, No 1 (2011), pp. 144-168.
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