About

Catherine J. Turco is the Michael M. Koerner (1949) Professor of Entrepreneurship and a Professor in MIT Sloan's Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management group as well as its program in Economic Sociology. She is an ethnographer and economic sociologist who studies cultural dynamics in organizations, occupations, and markets, with a particular focus on the role of meaning in economic life. Her research has been published in prominent journals such as the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review, and has received recognition from the American Sociological Association. Turco is the author of the books 'Harvard Square: A Love Story' (2023) and 'The Conversational Firm: Rethinking Bureaucracy in the Age of Social Media' (2016). Prior to her academic career, she worked as a technology investment banker and in the software industry, managing a corporate venture fund, and has also consulted organizations on corporate strategy and culture. She holds a BA in economics from Harvard College, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an MA and PhD in sociology from Harvard University.

Research topics

• Sociology
• History
• Psychology
• Economics
• Environmental science
• Mathematics
• Economic history
• Management
• Geometry

Selected publications

• Frontmatter

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2023

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Environmental science

  Praise for Harvard Square "

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Harvard Square

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2023 · 4 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Management

  Diving into Harvard Square’s past and present, Catherine J. Turco, an economic sociologist and longtime Harvard Square denizen, tells the crazy, complicated love story of one quirky little marketplace and in the process, reveals the hidden love story Americans everywhere have long had with their own Main Streets and downtowns.

  PublisherDOI

• Frontmatter

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2021

  • Psychology

  The Middle Range, coined and represented by Columbia sociologist Robert Merton, is a style of work that treats theory and observation as a single endeavor. This approach has yielded the most significant advances in the social sciences over the last half century; it is a defining feature of Columbia's department. This book series seeks to capitalize on the impact of approaches of the middle range and to solidify the association between Columbia University and its Press.

  DOI

• A New Era of Corporate Conversation

  The MIT Press eBooks · 2018-01-26 · 2 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Long-held assumptions about corporate communication and hierarchy are breaking down. In the coming years, the savviest leaders will tap into the spirit and tools of openness from social media to build may be called conversational firms. Conversational firms differ from conventional bureaucratic ones by having a far more open communication environment. Executives use multiple platforms to share information with the entire workforce. They encourage employees to speak up, ask questions, and share ideas and opinions. They saturate the workplace with digital tools and physical spaces designed to encourage dialogue. The result is an ongoing conversation that transcends the formal hierarchical structure. Forward-thinking leaders are already managing their organizations this way. Doing it right is hard, though. There are challenges to creating conversational companies. Leaders willing to invest in truly open dialogue with their workforce will be well positioned to face and shape the ever-evolving future.

  PublisherDOI

• Verstehen for Sociology: Comment on Watts

  DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · 2017-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Duncan Watts, in “Common Sense and Sociological Explanations” (AJS 120 [2014]: 313–51) has done our field a great service by raising a question at the heart of the sociological enterprise: What makes for valuable sociology, and when does it improve upon commonsense explanations? Watts makes three key observations that we believe are quite productive to contemplate. First, one may distinguish between two distinct modes of sociological inquiry: a verstehen (Weber 1968; Watts, p. 318) mode that resembles commonsense explanations in that it aims to establish an empathetic link between the readers or users of such accounts and the actors who populate them; and a “causal” mode, which seeks to identify “generalizable causal mechanisms” (Watts, p. 327; cf. Hedström 2005) that can, in principle, generate testable predictions and, thus, be vetted for their causal validity. Second, sociological theories must have greater causal validity than commonsense explanations if sociology is to make good on its promise of being more valuable than mere common sense. Third, in conducting their research, sociologists often focus on the verstehen mode without engaging in the causal mode.

  Publisher

• Verstehen for Sociology: Comment on Watts

  American Journal of Sociology · 2017-01-01 · 39 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 8. The Conversational Firm: Implications for Theory

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2016-09-25

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 1. The Social Revolution

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2016-09-25 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 5. Open Culture

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2016-09-25

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 4. Openness Controls

  Columbia University Press eBooks · 2016-09-25

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ezra W. Zuckerman

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  8 shared

• Damon J. Phillips

  3 shared

• Peter Bearman

  Columbia University

  2 shared

• Shamus Khan

  Princeton University

  2 shared

• Giacomo Negro

  Emory University

  1 shared

• Michael T. Hannan

  1 shared

• Balázs Kovács

  Yale University

  1 shared

• G H T

  Columbia University

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• American Sociological Association awards