Recently tenured sociologist Kenneth Tucker asks the big questions. "As a social theorist, I'm interested in issues such as 'What is the nature of the modern Western world?' and 'What social processes characterize our modern life?'" he explains. To answer such questions, Tucker turns both to contemporary thinkers and to traditional theorists such as Max Weber, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim. "They had some very perceptive insights into the nature of the social world, at least in the West," Tucker explains. "They were writing about issues that are still with us--the importance of class differences, the social conditions for a democratic community, and what a good community looks like."
Like contemporary German theorist Jurgen Habermas, Tucker is interested in building democratic interaction "in a world where we can no longer rely on fundamentalist traditions to give us a common framework." Both men believe rational communication may be what people still have in common. "American institutions aren't as strong as they used to be for very good reasons," Tucker says. "Schools and the economy, for example, are historically ridden with racism and sexism. To have rational communication, you must get rid of these barriers to equality."
Tucker believes that sociology--the study of people in groups--becomes ever more important in fragmented societies. "It's a fantasy to think that every group can run off to its own area and live peacefully. We still have to interact and confront problems that affect us all: the international economy, the environment, crime, issues around race and class." All these have historically been the concerns of sociologists, Tucker says, but now "you have to be much more sensitive to issues of cultural difference."
His own research is on a revolutionary workers' movement in late nineteenth-century France that "attempted to show a different vision of what modern society might look like: more participatory and less class divided." Tucker's book on the subject, French Revolutionary Syndicalism and the Public Sphere, will be published this summer by Cambridge University Press. He's also writing a book for undergraduates about British social theorist Anthony Giddens's place in recent sociological debates. Tucker's scholarly work has attracted nine grants since 1982.
Tucker earned his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, and taught at New College of the University of South Florida and Rice University before coming to MHC in 1990. He was chair of the European studies program for three years and is part of the critical social thought program.
Tucker lives with his wife and two of his three stepchildren in Granby. A lifelong sports enthusiast, he frequently plays tennis and once coached his stepson's Little League team. "I could only do it for a year because it was far more strenuous than teaching," he quipped.
Note: Profiles of other newly tenured faculty will appear in future issues of the CSJ.
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