John W. Meyer

Who is John W. Meyer?

Stanford bio:'John Meyer is a professor of sociology (and by courtesy, education)

emeritus, at Stanford; a faculty member at CDDRL; and a senior fellow,

by courtesy, at FSI. He received his PhD from Columbia University, and

taught there for several years before coming to Stanford. His research

has focused on the spread of modern institutions around the world, and

their impact on national states and societies. He is particularly

interested in the spread and impact of scientific activity, and in the

expansion and standardization of educational models. He has made many

contributions to organizational theory (e.g., Organizational Environments,

with W. R. Scott, Sage 1983), and to the sociology of education,

developing lines of thought now called neoinstitutional theory. Since

the late 1970s, he has worked on issues related to the impact of global

society on national states and societies (e.g., Institutional Structure,

co-authored with others, Sage 1987). Currently, he is completing a

collaborative study of worldwide science and its impact on national

societies (Drori, et al., Science in the Modern World Polity, Stanford, 2003), and is working on a study of the rise and impact of the worldwide human rights regime.'