Arland Thornton is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Population Studies, and Survey Research at the University of Michigan, where he is also associated with the Native American Studies Program and centers within the International Institute. He is a social demographer who has served as president of the Population Association of America and previously held a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health. He has received four awards for his books as well as distinguished career awards from the American Sociological Association and the Population Association of America. Thornton has focused much of his career on the study of family and demographic issues, with emphasis on marriage, cohabitation, childbearing, gender roles, education, and migration. Thornton pioneered the study of developmental idealism, including its conceptualization, measurement, and influence in many places. He has collaborated in the collection and analysis of data from Albania, Argentina, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Malawi, Nepal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, the U.S., and Vietnam. Thornton is currently conducting sociological research about American Indians, examining several dimensions of American Indian life, including levels, trends, and differentials in school enrollment, literacy, and years of school completed.
Publications
Thornton, Arland. 2014. "Population Structures." In Concise Encyclopedia of Comparative Sociology edited by Sasaki, Goldstone, Zimmermann, and Sanderson. Brill. PDF.
Thornton, Arland. 2012. "Developed and less developed societies." In The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization edited by George Ritzer. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. [PDF, full text, unedited]
Thornton, Arland. 2012. "Developmental idealism." In The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization edited by George Ritzer. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. [PDF, full text, unedited]
Thornton, Arland, Georgina Binstock, Dirgha J. Ghimire, Colter Mitchell, Mansoor Moaddel, Yu Xie, Li-Shou Yang, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, et al. 2012. "Knowledge and Beliefs about National Development and Developmental Hierarchies: the Viewpoints of Ordinary People in Thirteen Countries." Social Science Research, 41(5): 1053-1068.
Thornton, Arland, Alexandra Achen Killewald, Jennifer S. Barber, Georgina Binstock, Dirgha J. Ghimire, Ronald F. Inglehart, Rukmalie Jayakody, Yang Jiang, et al. 2010. "Creating Questions and Protocols for an International Study of Ideas About Development and Family Life." In Survey Methods in Multinational, Multiregional and Multicultural Conexts edited by Janet A. Harkness, Michael Braun, Brad Edwards, Timothy P. Johnson, Lars Lyberg, Peter Ph. Mohler, Beth-Ellen Pennell, Tom W. Smith. John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
