John Urry (sociologist)

John Richard Urry (/ˈʊəri/; June 1, 1946, London – March 18, 2016, Lancaster) FAcSS was a British sociologist, Professor at Lancaster University. He is noted for work in the fields of the sociology of tourism and mobility.

He has written books on many other aspects of modern society including the transition away from 'organised capitalism', the sociology of nature and environmentalism, and social theory in general.

Urry is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Founding Academician of the UK Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences and a Visiting Professor at both Bristol and Roskilde Geography Departments.

Born in London and educated at the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys School, Urry gained his first degrees from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1967, a 'double first' BA and MA in Economics, before going on to gain his PhD in Sociology from the same institution in 1972. He arrived at Lancaster University Sociology department as a lecturer in 1970, becoming head of department in 1983 and a professor in 1985.

His original research interests were in the sociology of power and revolution and this resulted in the publication of Reference Groups and the Theory of Revolution (1973) and Power in Britain (1973).

Early work at Lancaster was in the area of social theory and the philosophy of the social sciences. Social Theory as Science, (1975, 1982), co-written with his colleague Russell Keat, set out the main features of the realist philosophy of science. Critical confrontation with a number of Marxist traditions, of Althusserian structuralism, German state theory, and neo-Gramscian theory, resulted in the Anatomy of Capitalist Societies (1981).

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