Dandaneau, Steven P. 1964-

PERSONAL:

Born 1964, in Flint, MI; children: Patrick and Maxwell. Education: Michigan State University, B.A. (with honors), 1986; Brandeis University, M.A., 1990, Ph.D., 1992; also attended University of London, 1984, and Cambridge University, 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Knoxville, TN. Office—University of Tennessee, F101 Melrose Hall, 1616 Melrose Pl., Knoxville, TN 37996-4352. E-mail—sdandane@utk.edu.

CAREER:

Sociologist, educator, and writer. University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, faculty member, promoted to associate professor of sociology, 1992-2005, director of the University Honors and John W. Berry, Sr. Scholars Programs, 2000-2005; University of Tennessee, Knoxville, associate vice provost, director of the Chancellor's Honors Program, and associate professor of sociology, c. 2006—. Also visiting professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, 2006.

WRITINGS:

A Town Abandoned: Flint, Michigan, Confronts Deindustrialization, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1996.

(With Maude Falcone) A Wrong Life: Studies in Lifeworld-Grounded Critical Theory, Jai Press (Stamford, CT), 1998.

Taking It Big: Developing Sociological Consciousness in Postmodern Times, Pine Forge Press (Thousand Oaks, CA), 2001.

Contributor to professional journals, including the Sociolgist and Michigan Sociological Review.

SIDELIGHTS:

Steven P. Dandaneau is a sociologist whose first book focuses on his hometown of Flint, Michigan. A Town Abandoned: Flint, Michigan, Confronts Deindustrialization chronicles how the closing of several General Motors automobile manufacturing plants led to widespread unemployment. In the process, the author examines the sociological impact of the economic crisis and the various responses of several social and economic groups. In addition to a discussion of class and culture, Dandaneau writes of the different groups' high hopes and, ultimately, their disillusionment. According to Tamar Noam Glazer, writing in the Journal of the American Planning Association, the author's primary concern is "an analysis of the ideology that is embedded in a community's response to its fallen place in the labor market." Glazer added that Dandaneau explores his belief that the "efforts of the community to make sense of this predicament or to confront it in ways that implicitly continued to embrace the ideology of capitalism are based on a misconception of history and false hopes about the future."

Writing in Social Forces, Richard Child Hill called A Town Abandoned "a provocative application of critical theory to one of America's enduring dilemmas." Hill went on to write: "Dandaneau's critique of ideology genuinely illuminates." C.K. McFarland commented in the Labor Studies Journal that "the book does represent a major contribution, especially in empirically applying the critical theories of such scholars as Theodor W. Adorno, Frithjof Bergmann, Jurgen Habermas, and Max Horkheimer."

In Taking It Big: Developing Sociological Consciousness in Postmodern Times, Dandaneau provides an introductory critical sociological text that focuses on what is known in the field of sociology as the "sociological imagination." In essence, the author discusses how to understand the world's global problems within a sociological, interrelated context. Following in the footsteps of sociologist C. Wright Mills, the author presents his case that a sociological imagination is a relevant type of consciousness that is needed to understand and think through a wide variety of problems, from the worldwide ecological crises to individual panic disorder. Writing in the Journal of Sociology, David Rowe commented: "The book's success will, ultimately, be judged on whether it galvanizes the current generation of social science academics and students by ‘upgrading’ the sociological imagination that Mills had so memorably adumbrated half a century earlier." Rowe added that "this work is a timely reinstatement of his [Mills's] legacy and a persuasive reminder of sociology's deep-rooted emancipatory aspirations." Boston Review contributor John H. Summers noted that the author "tries to inject a note of vitality into academic sociology by finding a public purpose for it." Writing later in the same review, Summers added: "Judged against the crop of new books trying to make sociology compelling to students, Taking It Big is especially inviting, even charming."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Boston Review, December, 2003-January, 2004, John H. Summers, review of Taking It Big: Developing Sociological Consciousness in Postmodern Times.

Daily Beacon (University of Tennessee), June 16, 2006, "Dandaneau Gives Honors Program New Direction."

Journal of Sociology, September, 2003, David Rowe, review of Taking It Big, p. 324.

Journal of the American Planning Association, autumn, 1997, Tamar Noam Glazer, review of A Town Abandoned: Flint, Michigan, Confronts Deindustrialization, p. 528.

Labor Studies Journal, winter, 1998, C.K. McFarland, review of A Town Abandoned, p. 101.

Social Forces, December, 1997, Richard Child Hill, review of A Town Abandoned, p. 722.

Urban Affairs Review, July, 1997, Lynn Bachelor, review of A Town Abandoned, p. 899.

ONLINE

University of Tennessee, Knoxville Web site,http://web.utk.edu/ (March 29, 2007), faculty profile of author.