John Meyer

Stanford University

Professor, Emeritus

John. W. Meyer is Professor of Sociology, and by courtesy education, emeritus, at Stanford. He has contributed to organizational theory, comparative education, and the sociology of education, developing sociological institutional theory. He has studied the rise of globally institutionalized models of society, and their impact around the world (Weltkultur, Suhrkamp 2005; World Society: The Writings of John W. Meyer, Oxford 2009). A main research focus has been on the origins and effects of the worldwide expansion of education. Another study examines the worldwide expansion of science and its national effects (Drori, et al., Science in the Modern World Polity, Stanford, 2003). More recent collaborative projects are on the organizational impact of globalization (Drori et al., Globalization and Organization, Oxford 2006; Bromley and Meyer, Hyper-Organization: Global Organizational Expansion, Oxford 2015). He now studies the world human rights regime, and world curricular patters in mass and higher education, the worldwide expansion of formal organization. He has honorary doctorates from the Stockholm School of Economics, and the Universities of Bielefeld and Lucerne. He received American Sociological Association’s awards for lifetime contributions to the sociology of education, to the study of globalization, and to the field generally; and the Academy of Management's award for lifetime contributions to the study of organizations.