Box 1916

Maxcy Hall

112 George Street

Providence, RI 02912

Telephone: (401) 863-2367

Sociology@brown.edu

 

Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology, Brown University

Contact Information:
Brown University
Department of Sociology
Box 1916
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: (401) 863-3459
Fax: (401) 863-3213
Todd_Bridges@brown.edu

Year of Entry: 2004

Previous Degrees:
A.M. in Sociology, Brown University, 2006
B.S. in Finance/Economics, St. Mary's College, 2001
B.A. in Philosophy, St. Mary's College, 2001

Research Page:
http://toddarthurbridges.com/

Research Interests:
Economic Sociology, Sociology of Organizations, Sociology of Law, and Sociological Theory

Profile:
I am a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University with research and teaching interests in economic sociology, sociology of organizations, sociology of law, and sociological theory. During the 2007 academic year, I was an exchange scholar and teaching fellow at Harvard University.

Sociologists have a long history of attempting to break down the disciplinary boundary between economics and sociology. From its inception, the founders of the discipline--Marx, Weber, and Durkheim--focused on understanding how markets and the actions of individuals in those markets are influence by society. These three theorists have each focused on particular mechanisms such as class interests, religious institutions, power relations, legal institutions, and networks in order to show how society shapes markets.

As the discipline has evolved, the sub-discipline of economic sociology has come to the forefront of understanding how each of these particular mechanisms operates to construct, regulate, change, and reproduce markets. Contemporary scholars such as Polanyi, Granovetter, White, Bourdieu, Fligstein, Abolafia, and Knorr Cetina have each chosen particular markets to analyze (labor, housing, and financial markets, etc.) and each scholar has contributed the overall project to show how economic life and markets are dependent on, and embedded within, social and cultural foundations. That being said, however, markets are constantly evolving and it is of great sociological importance to stay up on the new developments in market societies. Therefore, my research focuses on the evolution of markets and analyzes the social and cultural embeddedness of these market evolutions.

Research Experience:

Brown University	Providence, United States	Research Project Manager
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)	Paris, France	Research
Center for Population Economics (CPE) at the University of Chicago	Chicago, United States	Research and Spatial Analyst
National Opinion Research Center (NORC)	Chicago, United States	Research and Spatial Analyst
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)	Chicago, United States	Research Assistant
The University of Chicago	Chicago, United States	Research Assistant
Brown University	Providence, United States	Research Assistant
JP Morgan Chase	New York, United States	Research Assistant

Teaching Assistantships:

Sociology 109	Theories of Organizational Dynamics and Decision Making (3 semesters)	Brown University	Teaching Assistant
Sociology 156	Quantitative Methods in Sociology-Harvard University	Harvard University	Teaching Fellow
Sociology 150	Economic Development and Social Change	Brown University	Teaching Assistant
Sociology 110	Statistics (2 semesters)	Brown University	Teaching Assistant
GSB	International Trade	The University of Chicago	Teaching Assistant

Research Assistantships:

Professor Mark Suchman	"The Organizational, Professional, and Legal Challenges of New Information Technologies in Healthcare" and "Competing Ethical Logics in Health Information Management: Investigating Divergent Approaches to IT Governance in American Hospitals"	Brown University
Professor Dennis Hogan	"The School-to-Work Transition for Adolescents with Disabilities" and "Research for Improving Reproductive Health in Ethiopia"	Brown University
Professor Robert Fogel	"EXDID: Explaining the Decline in Infant Mortality During the 20th Century"	The University of Chicago
Professor Robert Townsend	"The Spatial Analysis of Economic Development and Social Networks in Thailand"	The University of Chicago
Professor John Romalis	"Implications of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)"	The University of Chicago

Papers and Presentations :
Bridges, Todd Arthur (in progress). The Governing Social Structure of Markets in the Absence of Regulation: An Investigation of Informal and Formal Institutions. Brown University-Dissertation. Providence, RI

Bridges, Todd Arthur (2008). Controlling Capital: The Role of Social Structure in the Financial Markets. Brown University-Qualifying Paper. Providence, RI.

Bridges, Todd Arthur (2006). Embedding Intellectual Property Rights in Social Relations: A Macro-Micro-Macro Theoretical Model. Brown University-MA Thesis. Providence, RI.

Bridges, Todd Arthur (2005). Trends in International Migration within the OECD Member Countries. Presentation given to the International Futures Division of the OECD. Paris, France.

Bridges, Todd Arthur (2002).  Preliminary Findings on the Linkage between Infant Mortality and Education in Early Twentieth Century Chicago. Center for Population Economics at The University of Chicago, Working Paper No. 2002-3. Chicago, IL.

Dissertation Title:
The Governing Social Structure of Markets in the Absence of Regulation: An Investigation of Informal and Formal Institutions

Dissertation Committee:
Mark C. Suchman, Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell, Susan S. Silbey (MIT), and Frank Dobbin (Harvard)

Dissertation Abstract:
This research project consists of a multi-phase, multi-method investigation of the organizational, legal, and governance challenges faced by institutions in the U.S. hedge fund industry in the absence of formal state regulation. The empirical case study of the U.S. hedge fund industry is of sociological importance because if offers qualities of a pseudo-natural experiment wherein the formal regulatory structures that operate in the traditional financial system have been removed, leaving institutions the opportunity to create their own extra-legal governance mechanisms and structures. The proposed research will empirically and theoretically explore how institutions create and reproduce informal governance practices within their social networks in this social laboratory. Additionally, the research explores how the social network’s informal practices are interrelated with the formal legal environment issued by the U.S. government. The project will guide policymakers by investigating the governance practices in one of the most powerful markets in the U.S. financial system, which operates beyond the reach of current federal regulations and administrative bodies. At the same time, the research will guide social scientists in developing a richer theoretical understanding of how organizations within social networks construct governance mechanisms, how informal organizational practices are interrelated with the formal legal environment, and how the organization’s structural location in a network affects its governance practices and the governance regimes it operates within. 

Professional Membership and Activities:

2004-present	Member, American Sociological Association (ASA)
2006-present	Member, Economic Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association
2007-present	Member, Sociology of Law Section of the American Sociological Association
2008-present	Member, Organizations, Occupations and Work Section of the American Sociological Association
2008-present	Member, INSNA-International Network for Social Network Analysis
2009-present	Member, The American Academy of Political and Social Sciences

Professional Awards and Fellowships:

2009	Hazeltine Fellowship
2009	Russel and Selina Wonderlic Fellowship
2009	Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship (COE) Research Improvement Grant
2008	Brown University Dissertation Fellowship
2007	Harvard University Teaching Fellowship
2006-2008	Brown University Summer Research Fellowship
2005-2008	Brown University Graduate Assistantship/Fellowship