Dr Matt Vidal
Reader in Sociology and Comparative Political Economy
Matt is Reader in Sociology and Comparative Political Economy in the Institute for International Management.
For a full list of his publications and other work, see Matt Vidal's Curriculum Vitae and Google Scholar page.
Matt’s research interests include the sociology of work, organizations and labor markets, political economy, comparative-historical sociology and social theory. His work has been published in Contexts, Critical Sociology, Human Relations, Industrial Relations, New Political Economy, Organization Studies, Socio-Economic Review, Sociology Compass, Socius and Work, Employment & Society. He is author (with David Kusnet) of Organizing Prosperity (EPI) and editor (with Marco Hauptmeier) of Comparative Political Economy of Work (Palgrave). Matt currently has two books under contract, both with Oxford University Press: Management Divided: Contradictions of labor management in American capitalism; and The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx (with Paul Prew, Tomás Rotta and Tony Smith).
Matt is editor-in-chief of Work in Progress, a public sociology blog of the American Sociological Association on the economy, work and inequality. He is also commissioning editor of the Marxist Sociology Blog, another public sociology blog of the ASA. Matt is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Research in the Sociology of Work, was on the Editorial Board of Work, Employment & Society from 2010-15 and was co-editor (with Jon Hindmarsh) of the Organisations & Work section of Sociology Compass, 2009-13. He is the Chair of the Section on Marxist Sociology, American Sociological Association, 2017-18.
Academic background
Matt received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and has been a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne. Matt joined the King’s College London Department of Management as a Lecturer in 2008 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer and then Reader before leaving in 2017 to join Loughborough University London.
At King’s College London, Matt served as Exam Board Chair of the Undergraduate Programmes, overseeing three undergraduate programmes, 67 modules and circa 1,000 students. He also served as Deputy Chair of the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy Exam Board, Chair of the MSc International Management and MSc International Marketing Exam Boards, and Theme Leader of the “Markets, Firms & Competitiveness” theme of the ESCR Doctoral Training Centre at the University.
Current research and collaborations
Matt is currently working on three book projects:
- Management Divided: Contradictions of labor management in American capitalism (under contract with Oxford University Press)
- The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx (under contract with Oxford University Press, co-edited with Paul Prew, Tomas Rotta and Tony Smith)
- From Spur to Fetter: Western capitalism from the industrial revolution to postindustrial stagnation
Current PhD / research supervisions
Matt is currently supervising the following PhD students:
- Seyed Mousavi, “The social reproduction of Iranian elites” (first supervisor)
- Bo-Yi Lee, “Determinants of job quality” (co-supervisor)
- Giga Giorgadze, “The Dynamics of Public Healthcare Policy Change in Post-soviet Georgia” (co-supervisor)
- Ian Hill, “Teamwork and collaborative community in IT consulting and clinical medicine” (first supervisor)
Interests and activities
Matt is a Research Affiliate of the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. He organised (with Hyunji Kwon) the 32nd International Labour Process Conference, London, UK, 7-9 April 2014. He is an active member of the American Sociological Association sections on Marxist Sociology; Organisations, Occupations and Work; and Economic Sociology. Matt has organised three panels and a roundtable session of the ASA, four sub-themes of the European Group on Organisational Studies, a mini conference for the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, and stream for the International Labour Process Conference.
During his early academic career, Matt was Labor Solidarity Committee Co-Chair, Organising Committee member and Executive Board member of the Teaching Assistants Association, AFT #3220, Co-Chair of the University of Wisconsin Federation of Labor, and Vice-President of the Memorial Union Labor Organisation. More recently, Matt was the founding Secretary of the London Hardcourt Bike Polo Association and has been Manager for four years of the London Bike Polo League. Matt’s bike polo team took 2nd place at the first European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship (London 2009) and 11th place (tie) at the first World Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship (Philadelphia 2009).