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Sociologue, Doyen de l'Ecole Urbaine de Sciences Po, chercheur au Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée., Sciences Po

Tommaso Vitale, Dean of Sciences Po Urban School.
- MA in Political Science, 1999 - University of Milan
- Ph.D in Sociology, 2003 - University of Milan
- Certificate of Advanced Study in Comparative Institutional Analysis and Design, 2004 - Indiana University, Bloomington.
He teaches 'Urban Sociology' and 'Urban Policy Analysis'.
He is a Researcher at Centre d'études européennes et de politique comparée, where he co-coordinates with V. Guiraudon the research program "Cities, borders and (im)mobility".
He co-coordinates the research program 'Cities are back in town'
He is a member of the Scientific Board of Délégation Interministérielle à la Lutte Contre le Racisme, l'Antisémitisme et la Haine anti-LGBT (DILCRAH).
He is the CEE representative in the Board of Institut Convergences Migrations.
He is a member of the editorial team of the peer-review Journal PArtecipazione e COnflitto. The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies (H5 index: 16).

His empirical research has been organised around a main theoretical framework: a Weberian 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 (Weberian) “community action”.
Having been trained within a Weberian theoretical framework giving to 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.
He took inspiration from the Weberian legacy to link structure and action, trying to develop what Italian scholars called “Studi di comunità”, so to say a comparative approach to allow a dialogue between urban, political and economic sociology, as in the main Italian sociological tradition of Pizzorno and Bagnasco, or the last book of the American sociologist Peter Blau. Their Weberian approach to (inter)action and urban structure is not irenist at all, de-historicized, or intrinsically optimist as in many contemporary theories of “opportunities”.
This framework irrigates his three research projects:
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 behaviour.

Experience

  • 2022–present
    Dean, Sciences Po Urban School
  • 2010–present
    Research professor, Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics, CEE Sciences Po
  • –present
    Associate professor, Sciences Po

Honours

Certificate of Achievement awarded for Advanced Study in Comparative Institutional Analysis and Design at the Indiana University, USA, Eleneor and Vincent Ostrom Workshop