RESEARCH

Interests. My research lies at the intersection of economic sociology, organizations, professions, and political sociology. It aims to develop a sociological perspective for examining interdisciplinary subjects such as regulation, implementation, innovation, and designation by law. Among others, my studies emphasize the role of organizations and their work in shaping market institutions, their rules and practices. For instance, using historical data, my dissertation project highlights how organizational identity work shapes the form and meaning of regulation through time. The projects that rely on survey data show the effect of organizational culture and organizational status on the extent to which organizations implement innovations. In the project I am working on with the team at the University of Colorado Boulder, as I do in most of my research, I pay special attention to professional organizations and their power to mobilize resources and shape not only markets for professional work, but also policy design and its implementation.

PUBLICATIONS & WORK IN PROGRESS

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Gjata, Joris, Matthew S. Rowe, & Shawhin Roudbari. "Tools and Targets of Activist Professionals: Theorizing Work in Professional Movements." Research in the Sociology of Work. Special Issue on Professional Work. (Revise and Resubmit)
Gjata, Joris. “The Context and Management of Professional Work in Innovation Implementation: How Organizational Culture Affects the Use of Care Management Practices in Large Physician Organizations in the United States.” Sociological Perspectives (Under Review)
Rowe, Matthew, Joris Gjata & Shawhin Roudbari. "Dissenting Designers: A Sociological History of Activism and Advcocay in Architecture." Architecture Theory Review. (Under Review)
Erol, Ali E. & Joris Gjata. (2013) “Doğmamış Çocuğa Don Biçmek: Visions of a multicultural family”. in A. Gonzalez and T. M. Harris (eds). Mediating Cultures: Parent Communication in Intercultural Contexts. Lanham, MD: Lexington.

Other Publications

Gjata, Joris (2010) “Lessons from the Turkish-Armenian Protocols” Turkey Analyst. Vol. 3. No. 7. www.silkroadstudies.org
Gjata, Joris (2009). “Turkey and the IMF: What Delays the Deal”. Turkey Analyst. Vol. 2. No. 20. www.silkroadstudies.org

Work in Progress

Gjata, Joris. Organizations of Judgment with No Judgment: The Rise of Private Governance through Rating Systems in American Finance and Healthcare (In Preparation)
Gjata, Joris. "Organizational Identity and Regulation-by-Information: Private Securities Rating Enters Government Regulation in American Finance (1900s-1950s)." (In Preparation)
Gjata, Joris. “Organizational Status and the Implementation of Innovations: Governance Changes in Organizations of Higher Education.” (In Preparation)
Gjata, Joris. “Market Governance through Legal Designation of Private Organizations: How Hospital Accreditation Became Regulation in the United States.” (In Preparation)
Gjata, Joris. "An Old Quest for a New Engineer: Scholarly Visions of Organizing Around Social Problems." Engineering Studies (In Preparation)

Gjata, Joris. “Successful Alliance and Failed Adoption: How National Identity Shaped the Adoption of Central Bank Independence in Singapore.” (In Preparation)
Roudbari, Shawhin, Joris Gjata & Matthew Rowe. "Activists at Work: Understanding Dissent as Architectural Labor." (In Preparation)
Gorman, Elizabeth H., Sarah E. Mosseri, and Joris Gjata.“Institutions, Politics, and State Regulation of Professions: Establishing the U.S. Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board.” (In Preparation)

Dissertation. My dissertation examines the emergence and transformation of regulation-by-information—a form of regulating producers through information products without specifying enforcement mechanisms. I trace the evolution of this form in the American finance and healthcare sectors. Using data on congressional records and hearings, organizational histories and accounts, examinations of industry publications, and newspaper articles, I examine how securities rating and hospital accreditation emerged as mainly private enterprises and transformed into increasingly public endeavors, culminating with their providers' recognition and designation in law. I find that the organizational identity work of rating/accreditation organizations—how they presented their product and themselves—contributed to their regulatory power and legal incorporation.

Other Projects. (i) In a paper under review, I use regression analyses of restricted-access survey data to examine the effect of organizational culture on the extent to which physician organizations in the United States used a set of new care management practices i.e. evidence-based management. Among others, I find that physician organizations with a heterogeneous culture implemented evidence-based management more fully than those with a strong culture. (ii) With Elizabeth H. Gorman and Sarah E. Mosseri, we are examining the accounting profession's transition from self-regulation to state regulation. Analyzing the legislative hearings associated with the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, we note how political contestation affected the positions of key stakeholders, including accounting professionals, lawyers, corporate clients and public investors, and ultimately shaped the form of regulation for the accounting profession. (iii) In another paper in preparation, I use regression analysis to determine whether status explains the extent to which U.S. four-year colleges and universities have put in place and used new governance models i.e. a different relationship between faculty members and university administrators in the last decade. I find that the higher the organizations's status, the less extensive its implementation of a new governance model. (iv) With Shawhin Roudbari and Matthew S. Rowe, we are conducting field work and in-depth interviews with design professionals, such as civil engineers and architects, that dissent as a result of their involvement in social justice work. Our project examines the interactions of institutional context, professional culture, professional and personal identities, and work practices to understand, among others, the barriers and enablers of institutional change within this professional field.