Eric Klinenberg

Eric Klinenberg  is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He also serves as Research Director of Rebuild by Design, which began as a federal competition to generate innovative infrastructure plans for the region affected by Hurricane Sandy, and now helps cities around the world transform to address climate change.

Klinenberg’s research projects focus on cities, climate change, culture, politics, media, technology, and social policy. He often teaches qualitative methods for doctoral students and undergraduate courses on the social challenges of climate change. 

His most recent book is Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life (Crown Publishing, September 2018). The book argues that the future of democratic societies rests not simply on shared values but on shared spaces: the libraries, childcare centers, bookstores, churches, synagogues, and parks that help us form crucial, sometimes life-saving connections. These are places where people can gather and linger, strengthening personal ties and promoting interaction across group lines. They are vital parts of what he calls our “social infrastructure,” and they are necessary for rebuilding societies everywhere.

Klinenberg is also the coauthor, with Aziz Ansari, of the #1 New York Times bestseller Modern Romance, _and author of the acclaimed books _Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, and Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media.

Klinenberg has published in the American Sociological Review, Theory & Society, the American Journal of Public Health, and Ethnography. In addition to his scholarship, Klinenberg has contributed to The New Yorker, the_ New York Times Magazine_, Rolling Stone, the London Review of Books, Wired, _and This American Life_.