John D. McCarthy


John David McCarthy is an American sociologist. He earned his Ph.D degree in Sociology at University of Oregon in 1968. He is currently a Professor of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University.
He has contributed to the research of social movement and resource mobilization theory. His research and teaching interests include Collective Behavior and Social Movements; Policing of the Public Order; Formal Organizations; and Mass Media Processes.

Research projects

In recent years he has been a Principal Investigator of projects on Local Poor Empowerment Community Organizations ; Media Coverage of Washington, D. C. Protest Gatherings; the Evolution of Public Protest in the U.S., 1960-1995 ; the Evolution of Social Movement Organizations in the U.S., 1959-2002 ; and Public Order Disturbances on College a University Campuses during the past decade. He is co-directing a National Science Foundation funded project on “Spiritual Entrepreneurialism.”

Teaching

McCarthy has taught many Ph.D. candidates in Sociology specializing in Social Movements and Organizations. Among these are John Crist, Bob Edwards, Erik Johnson, Andrew Martin, Ron Pagnucco, Pat Rafail, Deb Swanson, and Ed Walker.

John D. McCarthy Award

The Center for the Study of Social Movements at the University of Notre Dame established the John D. McCarthy Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movement and Collective Behavior in 2007 to recognize scholars who have made “outstanding contributions to the scholarly literature concerned with social movements, protest, collective violence, riots, and other kinds of collective behavior”. The 2013 award winner was David Snow. Past recipients of the award include Pam Oliver at Wisconsin-Madison, Bill Gamson at Boston College, Doug McAdam at Stanford University, Mayer Zald at Michigan, Verta Taylor at UC-Santa Barbara, and John McCarthy.

Selected publications