Tommaso Vitale

Tommaso Vitale, Sociologist and Dean of the Sciences Po Urban School teach both Urban Sociology and Urban Policy Analysis.

He got a MA in Political Science (1999 - University of Milan), a Ph.D. in Sociology (2003 - University of Milan), a Certificate of Advanced Study in Comparative Institutional Analysis and Design (2004 - Indiana University, Bloomington), and an HDR in Sociology (2023, Sciences Po). 

He is a Researcher at Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, where he co-coordinates with V. Guiraudon the research program Cities, Borders and (Im)Mobility. He also coordinates the research seminar Cities Are Back in Town.
He is a member of the Editorial Boards of PArtecipazione e COnflitto – The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies and of Sociologica – International Journal for Sociological Debate.

His empirical research has been organized around a main theoretical framework: a neo-structural sociology, not deterministic but attentive to structural contexts of opportunities at different scales, to explore the relationship between social and spatial factors influencing forms of “community action”. Having been trained within a Weberian theoretical framework giving the city a generative role in structuring social, political, and economic interactions, his research looks at community action not as a form of solidarity but as a form of collective action not requiring a common identity.

This framework irrigates his three research programs:

1) Roma agency, integration, and upward social mobility;

2) the political sociology of associations and NGOs in urban societies;

3) the impact of urban social and spatial structure on electoral behavior.

To know more

• CV with publications (PDF, 6,7 Mo)
• tommaso.vitale@sciencespo.fr