Chasing Events: 9/11 and Other Cases in the American, French, and Dutch Public Spheres

“With clarity and imagination, Thijs van Dooremalen develops a major new approach for the study of events. The approach goes beyond existing formulations that see events as sudden ruptures by reconceptualizing them as potentially long-term phenomena that fundamentally involve meaning-making processes. Through rigorous and painstaking data collection, Van Dooremalen reveals how the event of 9/11 set into motion different path-dependent processes of framing and understanding in the United States, France, and the Netherlands. This book offers a brilliant theoretical reorientation, an outstanding empirical analysis, and merits much attention from a broad interdisciplinary social science audience.” (James Mahoney, Professor of Sociology and Political Science, Northwestern University)

“Chasing events offers an original comparative cultural sociology of events, with a focus on discursive processes that make events differently “real” and consequential for three different national public spheres in the United States, France, and the Netherlands. The author helps move theorization in novel directions, connecting with disciplinary literatures concerned with understanding historical causality with the help of concepts such as “path dependency,” “critical moments,” and “conjuncture of structure.” Students of social change have much to learn from this book, which I recommend highly.” (Michèle Lamont, Past president of the American Sociological Association and co-author of Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in the United States, Brazil and Israel)