Richard Appelbaum

Distinguished Professor Emeritus

Office Location

SSMS (room pending)

Bio

Richard P. Appelbaum, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and former MacArthur Foundation Chair in Global and International Studies and Sociology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.  He has previously served as chair of the Sociology Department 1988-1992, Director of the Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research 1993-2005 (ISBER), co-founder of the UCSB Global & International Studies Program, and served as the founding Director of its M.A program (2005-2012).  He is currently Professor at Fielding Graduate University, where he chairs the doctoral concentration on Sustainability Leadership.

He received his B.A. from Columbia University, M.P.A. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He has been a Simon Visiting Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Manchester, England, and an Honorary Visiting Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Hong Kong. Between 1964-1966 he served as on a Ford Foundation program a consultant to the Oficina Nacional de Planeamiento y Urbanismo (ONPU), Lima, Peru.

Professor Appelbaum has received numerous awards and commendations for excellence in teaching, including the UCSB Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in the Social Sciences. He has served as an elected Council Member of the Political Economy of the World-System Section of the American Sociological Association, as well as its President. He is on the Board of Consulting Editors of the Encyclopedia of Housing and the Encyclopedia of Global Studies. He has served as a faculty representative to the University of California Advisory Committee on Trademark Licensing/Designated Suppliers Program, and chairs the Advisory Council of the Workers' Rights Consortium. He is the author of the report of the Los Angeles Jewish Commission on Sweatshops, for which he served as a founding member.  In the past, he was co-PI (and served on the Executive Committees of) the NSF-funded Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science, 1999-2004 (CSISS), Spatial Perspectives for Analysis in Curriculum Enhancement, 2003-2009 (SPACE), and the Center for Nanotechnology in Society, 2006-2016 (CNS).

Professor Appelbaum has published extensively in the areas of social theory, urban sociology, public policy, the globalization of business, and the sociology of work and labor. In addition to numerous scholarly papers, he has published policy-related and opinion pieces in the Los Angeles Times and The American Prospect. He has authored or co-authored His recent books include Innovation in China: Challenging the Global Science and Technology System (with Cong Cao, Xueying Han, Rachel Parker, and Denis Simon; Polity Press, 2018; Achieving Workers’ Rights in the Global Economy (co-edited with Nelson Lichtenstein; Cornell University Press, 2016); Can Emerging Technologies Make a Difference in Development? (co-edited with Rachel Parker, Routledge, 2012); Towards a Critical Globalization Studies (co-edited with William I. Robinson, Routledge, 2005); States and Economic Development in the Asian Pacific Rim (with Jeffrey Henderson; Sage, 1992); Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Garment Industry (with Edna Bonacich; University of California Press, 2000); Rules and Networks: The Legal Culture of Global Business Transactions (co-edited with William L.F. Felstiner and Volkmar Gessner; Oxford, England: Hart, 2001; and Introduction to Politics and Economics (an edited collection of readings; Kendall-Hunt 2004). 

He is also co-author (with Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, and Deborah Carr) of Introduction to Sociology, currently in its 11th edition (W.W. Norton). He is a founding editor (and currently emeritus editor) of Competition and Change: The Journal of Global Business and Political Economy.

Professor Appelbaum is currently engaged in two principal research projects: a multi-disciplinary study of labor conditions in supply chain networks in the Asian-Pacific Rim, and a study of high technology development in China.

  • Ph.D., Sociology, University of Chicago, 1971
  • M.P.A., Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 1966
  • B.A., Public Law and Government, Columbia University, 1964

Teaching Areas & Research Interests

World-system theory; global production, labor, and workers’ rights; science, technology, and society; China’s transition to “indigenous innovation”

Publications

Books:

  • Appelbaum, Richard, Cong Cao, Xueying (Shirley) Han, Rachel Parker, and Denis Simon, Innovation in China: Challenging the Global Science and Technology System, Polity Press (2018)
  • Appelbaum, Richard, Introduction to Sociology, Essentials edition: 7th Edition (Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P. Appelbaum), and Deborah Carr, NY: W.W. Norton (2018)
  • Appelbaum, Richard, Introduction to Sociology: 11th Edition (Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P. Appelbaum, and Deborah Carr), NY: W.W. Norton (2018)
  • Appelbaum, Richard and Nelson Lichtenstein (eds), Achieving Workers’ Rights in the Global Economy. Cornell University Press 2016
  • Parker, Rachel and Richard P. Appelbaum (eds.), Can Emerging Technologies Make a Difference in Development? NY: Routledge, 2012
  • Appelbaum, Richard (2005) TNCs and the Removal of Textiles and Clothing Quotas. Geneva, Switzerland: UNCTAD (http://repositories.cdlib.org/isber/cgs/3/)
  • Appelbaum, Richard P. and William I. Robinson (eds.), Critical Globalization Studies. NY: Routledge (2004).
  • Appelbaum, Richard P. (ed.) Introduction to Global Studies: Politics and Economics. Dubuque, IO: Kendall Hunt (2004)
  • Richard P. Appelbaum, William L.F. Felstiner and Volkmar Gessner, eds. Rules and Networks: The Legal Culture of Global Business Transactions. Oxford, England: Hart, 2001
  • Edna Bonacich and Richard P. Appelbaum, Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry.  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.
  • Appelbaum, Richard, Sociology 2/e (with William J. Chambliss), New York: Addison Wesley Longman (formerly HarperCollins), 1997
  • Appelbaum, Richard, Sociology: A Brief Edition (brief paperback version of Introductory Sociology textbook, with William J. Chambliss), New York: Addison Wesley Longman (formerly HarperCollins), 1997
  • Appelbaum, Richard, States and Development in the Asian Pacific Rim (edited collection, with Jeffrey Henderson), Newbury Park: Sage, 1992
  • Appelbaum, Richard, Karl Marx, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988.
  • Numerous articles on housing and homelessness, urban growth and development, global economic change.

Recent Articles/Chapters (2008-2018):

  • Han, Xueying (Shirley) and Richard Appelbaum, “China’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research environment: A snapshot,” PLoS One (April 3, 2018) (http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0195347)
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “Labor,” entry in Juergensmeyer, Mark, Saskia Sassen, and Manfred Steger (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Global Studies, 2018
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “Mental Models of Economic Development,” ch. 3 in Paul Battersby and Ravi Roy (eds.), International Development:A Global Perspective on Theory and Practice. Sage, 2017.
  • Foladori, Guillermo, Eduardo Robles Belmont, Edgar Ramón Arteaga Figueroa, Richard Appelbaum, and Edgar Záyago Lau (2018) “Patents and Nanotechnology Innovation in Mexico,” Recent Patents on Nanotechnology 12:3 (August 2): 243-256
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “From Public Regulation to Private Enforcement: How CSR Became Managerial Orthodoxy.” Chapter 2 in Richard Appelbaum and Nelson Lichtenstein (eds), Achieving Workers’ Rights in the Global Economy. Cornell University Press, spring 2016
  • Appelbaum, Richard and Nelson Lichtenstein, “Achieving Workers’ Rights in the Global Economy,” “Introduction” in Richard Appelbaum and Nelson Lichtenstein (eds), Achieving Workers’ Rights in the Global Economy. Cornell University Press, 2016
  • Han, Xueying, Stocking, Galen, Gebbie, Matthew A., & Appelbaum, Richard P. (2015). Will they stay or will they go? International graduate students and their decisions to stay or leave the U.S. upon graduation. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0118183. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118183
  • Appelbaum, Richard P. “China - Innovator or Follower?” 2014. UK China Policy Institute Blog (http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/chinapolicyinstitute/2014/12/05/china-innovator-orfollower/)
  • Motoyama, Yasuyuki, Cong Cao, & Richard Appelbaum. (2014). Observing Regional Divergence of Chinese Nanotechnology Centers. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 81(0), 11-21. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2013.02.013
  • Foladori, Guillermo, Appelbaum, Richard, Invernizzi, Noela, & Záyago Lau, Edgar. (2014). Nanotecnologia y trabajadores: Declaracion de Curitiba. Observatorio del Desarrollo, 3(9), 73-75.
  • Henderson, Jeffrey, Richard P. Appelbaum, and Suet Ying Ho. 2013. “Globalization With Chinese Characteristics: Externalization, Dynamics and Transformation,” Development and Change 44 (6): 1221-1253
  • Appelbaum, Richard. (2013). “Innovative and Responsible Governance of Converging Technologies.” In M. Roco (Ed.), Innovative and Responsible Governance of Converging Technologies. OECD Workshop Report on Bridging the Divide Between Policy, Practice and Research on Public Engagement on Nanotechnologies.
  • WRC and Center for American Progress, Global Wage Trends for Apparel Workers, 2001-2011). Worker Rights Consortium and Centrer for American Progress, July 2013 (https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2013/07/11/69255/global-wage-trends-for-apparel-workers-2001-2011/)
  • Cao, Cong, Appelbaum, Richard, & Parker, Rachel, “Research is High and the Market is Far Away - Commercialization of Nanotechnology in China,” Technology in Society 35 (2013) 55–64.
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “Outsourcing,” entry in Anheier, Helmut K. and Mark Juergensmeyer (eds.), Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Sage, 2012
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “Nanotechnology,” entry in Anheier, Helmut K. and Mark Juergensmeyer (eds.), Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Sage, 2012.
  • Foladori, Guillermo, Lau, Edgar Záyago, Sandoval, Remberto, Appelbaum, Richard, & Parker, Rachel. “Mexico-U.S. Collaboration in MEMS/NEMS.” NanoEthics. (2012)
  • Appelbaum, Richard P. and Rachel A. Parker, “China’s Move to High-Tech Innovation: Some Regional Policy Implications,” in Christopher Dent and Joern Dosch (eds.), The Asia-Pacific, Regionalism and the Global System. Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar, 2012
  • Appelbaum, Richard and Rachel Parker, “The Chinese Century? Some Policy Implications of China’s Move to High-Tech Innovation,” in Harthorn, Barbara, and John Mohr (eds), The Social Life of Nanotechnology.  New York: Routledge (2012)
  • Parker, Rachel, Richard Appelbaum, and Yasuyuki Motoyama, “Industrial Policy and Nanotechnology Development: Does Public Investment Pay Off?” in Harthorn, Barbara, and John Mohr (eds), The Social Life of Nanotechnology.  New York: Routledge (2012)
  • Appelbaum, Richard, & Parker, Rachel (2012) Introduction: The Promise and Perils of High-Tech Approaches to Development, introductory chapter. In Rachel Parker and Richard Appelbaum (Eds.), Can Emerging Technologies Make a Difference in Development? (pp. 1-20). New York: Routledge
  • Foladori, Guillermo, Lau, Edgar Záyago, Appelbaum, Richard, and Parker, Rachel. “Mexico-U.S. scientific collaboration in nanotechnology.” Revista Frontera Norte (English edition) 27(47): 2012
  • Mehta, Aashish, Herron, Patrick, Motoyama, Yasuyuki, Appelbaum, Richard, and Lenoir, Timothy (2012) “Globalization and De-globalization in Nanotechnology Research: The Role of China.” Scientometrics
  • Appelbaum, Richard P., Parker, Rachel, and Cao, Cong. (2011). “Developmental state and innovation: Nanotechnology in China.” Global Networks, 11(3), 298–314.
  • Motoyama, Yasuyuki, Appelbaum, Richard P., and Parker, Rachel. (2011). “The National Nanotechnology Initiative: Federal Support for Science and Technology, or Hidden Industrial Policy?”Technology in Society, 33(1-2), 109-118.
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “Will China Eat Our Lunch?’ Review of Denis Fred Simon and Cong Cao, China’s Emerging Technological Edge: Assessing the Role of High-End Talent. Asia Policy 11 (January 2011): 160-164
  • Dillemuth, Julie, Frederick, Stacey, Parker, Rachel, Gereffi, Gerry, and Appelbaum, Richard. (2011). “Traveling Technologies: Societal Implications of Nanotechnology through the Global Value Chain.” Journal of Nano Education, 3(1-2), 36-44.
  • Appelbaum, Richard P. “Transnational Contractors in East Asia,” in Gary Hamilton, Benjamin Senauer, and Misha Petrovic, The Market Makers: How Retailers Are Reshaping the Global Economy, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011
  • Appelbaum, Parker, Cao, and Gereffi, “China’s (Not So Hidden) Developmental State: Becoming a Leading Nanotechnology Innovator in the 21st Century,” in Fred Block and Matthew Keller (eds.), State of Innovation: The U.S. Government’s Role in Technology Development. Paradigm, 2010
  • Parker, Rachel and Richard Appelbaum, “Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes in Water Filtration Systems: From New Material Innovation to New Product Innovation,” Gore New Materials and Innovation Series, Chemical Heritage Foundation (2010)
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “Big Suppliers in Greater China: A Growing Counterweight to the Power of Giant Retailers,” in Ho-fung Hung (ed.), China and the Transformation of Global Capitalism, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009
  • Appelbaum, Richard, 2009. “Statement on China’s Investment in Nanotechnology and Its Likely Impact on the U.S.,” in China’s Industrial Policy and its Impact on U.S. Companies, Workers, and the American Economy. Hearing Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Comission, 111th Congress, First Session, Washington, D.C. (March 24)
  • Wang, Haiyan, Richard Appelbaum, Francesca de Giuli, and Nelson Lichtenstein, “China’s New Contract Labor Law: Is China Moving Towards Increased Power for Workers?” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2009, pp 485–501
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “Giant Transnational Contractors in East Asia: Emergent Trends in Global Supply Chains,” Competition and Change 12:1 (March 2008): 69-87
  • Appelbaum, Richard and Rachel Parker (2008) “China’s Bid to Become a Global Nanotech Leader,” Science and Public Policy, 35(5): June, pages 319–334.
  • Conti, Joseph A. Keith Killpack, Gina Gerritzen, Leia Huang, Maria Mircheva, Magali Delmas, Barbara Herr Harthorn, Richard P. Appelbaum, and Patricia A. Holden, “Health and Safety Practices in the Nanotechnology Workplace: Results from an International Survey,” Environmental Science & Technology.  42(9) 2008: 3155-
  • Appelbaum, Richard, “Giant Transnational Contractors in East Asia: Emergent Trends in Global Supply Chains,” Competition and Change 12:1 (March 2008): 69-87