Jack Barbalet

Jack Barbalet is an Australian sociologist. Since 2011 he has been Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Sociology at Hong Kong Baptist University and an Adjunct Professor in the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney. He has held appointments at the University of Papua New Guinea, the University of Adelaide, and the Australian National University. He was Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester (1999–2008), where he was Head of Department, and subsequently Professorial Fellow in the Centre for Citizenship and Public Policy at the University of Western Sydney. In 2007 Barbalet was Scholar-in-Residence at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany.

Barbalet completed undergraduate studies at the Flinders University of South Australia in 1971 and was awarded a first class honours degree by Adelaide University in 1972, where he completed a PhD (1978).

Barbalet’s research interests include sociological theory, economic sociology and the study of markets in greater China.

He was an early contributor to citizenship studies. Barbalet was central in the development of the sociology of emotions, not only intellectually but also organizationally through the establishment of the Sociology of Emotions Research Network of the European Sociological Association.

A leading contributor to the study of Max Weber, Barbalet’s book, Weber, Passion and Profits, was awarded the prestigious Stephen Crook Memorial Prize of The Australian Sociological Association in 2010.

The current focus of Barbalet’s research includes the sociologically contentious issue of self-interest and the sociological relevance of themes in Chinese philosophy, especially Daoist.

• Jack Barbalet, Adam Possamai and Bryan Turner (editors). Religion and the State: A Comparative Sociology. London: Anthem Press, 2011.
• Jack Barbalet. Weber, Passion and Profits: ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Jack Barbalet (editor). Emotions and Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing (Sociological Review Monograph Series), 2002.
• Jack Barbalet. Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure: A Macrosociological Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
• Jack Barbalet. Citizenship: Rights, Struggle and Class Inequality. London: Open University Press, 1988.
• Jack Barbalet. Marx's Construction of Social Theory. London: Routledge, 1983.