Daniel Fridman
Associate Professor — Ph.D., Columbia University
Associate Professor, LLILAS and Department of Sociology

Contact
- E-mail: dfridman@utexas.edu
- Phone: 512.232.4811
- Office: RLP 3.634
- Campus Mail Code: A1700
Interests
Economy and culture; consumption; finances and popular culture; neoliberalism; globalization
Biography
Daniel Fridman is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at UT-Austin. He received his PhD in Sociology from Columbia University, where he was a Mellon Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy. Before joining UT-Austin in 2013, he taught at the University of Victoria and was a fellow at the Centro de Estudios Sociales de la Economía (CESE), Universidad Nacional de San Martín. He previously studied sociology at the University of Buenos Aires and worked for the National Statistics Institute in Argentina. Daniel is interested in the intersections of economy and culture, neoliberalism and financialization, economic policy in Latin America, consumer culture, gift-giving, the sociology of money, and the construction of economic subjects.
His book Freedom From Work: Embracing Financial Self-Help in the United States and Argentina was published in November 2016 by Stanford University Press.
His book Freedom From Work: Embracing Financial Self-Help in the United States and Argentina received Honorable Mention for the Best Book Award 2016-2017, given by the American Sociological Association Section on Consumers and Consumption.
The Spanish translation El sueño de vivir sin trabajar: una sociología del emprendedorismo, la autoayuda financiera y el nuevo individuo del siglo XXI was published in 2019.
Courses
LAS 325 • Consumption In Latin Amer-Wb
39945 • Spring 2021
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM
Internet; Synchronous
GC
(also listed as SOC 321C)
SOC 379M • Sociological Theory-Wb
44845 • Spring 2021
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
LAS 301 • Key Ideas & Iss In Lat Amer-Wb
38630 • Fall 2020
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
GC
(also listed as HIS 306N)
LAS 381 • Development Mkts & Soc Lat Am
39405 • Spring 2020
Meets TH 12:00PM-3:00PM SRH 1.313
(also listed as SOC 396P)
SOC 379M • Sociological Theory
43885 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM RLP 1.106
LAS 301 • Key Ideas & Iss In Lat Amer
38735 • Fall 2019
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM WAG 214
GC
(also listed as HIS 306N)
SOC 321E • Economy, Culture, & Society
43485 • Fall 2019
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM RLP 1.104
SOC F321E • Economy, Culture, & Society
83750 • Summer 2019
Meets MTWTHF 11:30AM-1:00PM RLP 0.124
LAS 381 • Development Mkts & Soc Lat Am
39730 • Spring 2019
Meets T 12:00PM-3:00PM SRH 1.313
(also listed as SOC 396P)
SOC 379M • Sociological Theory
44385 • Spring 2019
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM RLP 1.106
LAS 325 • Consumption In Latin Amer
39740 • Fall 2018
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM SRH 1.313
GC
(also listed as SOC 321C)
SOC 321E • Economy, Culture, & Society
44760 • Fall 2018
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM BUR 134
LAS 381 • Development Mkts & Soc Lat Am
40155 • Spring 2018
Meets T 12:00PM-3:00PM SRH 1.313
(also listed as SOC 396P)
SOC 379M • Sociological Theory
45065 • Spring 2018
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM CLA 1.106
LAS 325 • Consumption In Latin Amer
40380 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM SRH 1.320
(also listed as SOC 321C)
SOC 321E • Economy, Culture, & Society
45383 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM PAR 1
LAS 325 • Consumption In Latin Amer
40425 • Spring 2017
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM SRH 1.320
(also listed as SOC 321C)
LAS 381 • Development Mkts & Soc Lat Am
40590 • Spring 2017
Meets TH 2:00PM-5:00PM SRH 1.320
SOC 379M • Sociological Theory
44650 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM CLA 1.106
SOC 379M • Sociological Theory
44655 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM CLA 1.106
LAS 381 • Development Mkts & Soc Lat Am
39625 • Fall 2015
Meets TH 2:00PM-5:00PM CLA 0.124
(also listed as SOC 396P)
SOC 321E • Economy, Culture, & Society
44600 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM CLA 0.128
LAS 325 • Consumption In Latin Amer
39625 • Spring 2015
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM CLA 1.108
(also listed as SOC 321C)
SOC 379M • Sociological Theory
45095 • Spring 2015
Meets MWF 1:00PM-2:00PM CLA 0.102
LAS 384 • Prosmnr: Curr Iss In Lat Amer
40775 • Fall 2014
Meets F 10:00AM-1:00PM SRH 1.313
SOC 321E • Economy, Culture, & Society
46165 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM CLA 1.106
SOC 321K • Economy, Culture, And Society
46380 • Spring 2014
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM CLA 0.128
LAS 325 • Consumption In Latin America
40755 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM CLA 1.106
(also listed as SOC 321K)
SOC 321K • Economy, Culture, And Society
46155 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM CLA 0.112
Publications
Selected Publications
Books
Fridman, Daniel (2019). El sueño de vivir sin trabajar: una sociología del emprendedorismo, la autoayuda financiera y el nuevo individuo del siglo XXI. Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores.
Fridman, Daniel (2016). Freedom From Work: Embracing Financial Self-Help in the United States and Argentina. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Articles
Fridman, Daniel and Alex Luscombe (2017). “Gift-giving, Disreputable Exchange, and the Management of Donations in a Police Department”. Social Forces, 96(2), pp. 507-528.
Fridman, Daniel (2018). “¿Cuánto vale la neurosis?: el pago por la terapia en la ciudad de Buenos Aires,” in Wilkis, Ariel (ed.), El poder de (e)valuar. La producción monetaria de jerarquías sociales, morales y estéticas en las sociedades contemporáneas. Buenos Aires and Bogotá: UNSAM Edita/Universidad del Rosario.
Fridman, Daniel (2017). Betting on Other People’s Lives, Public Books, December 13.
Fridman Daniel (2016). "Cashflow: Juego, autoayuda financiera y producción de sujetos económicos", Apuntes de Investigación, Nº28, pp. 69-94.
Fridman, Daniel (2015) “Las contradicciones de la gubernamentalidad neoliberal: reforma financiera, nuevos sujetos económicos y crisis en la última dictadura argentina”, pp. 115-134 in Wilkis, Ariel & Alexandre Roig (eds.), El laberinto de la moneda y las finanzas. La vida social de la economía. Buenos Aires: Biblos.
Fridman, Daniel (2014). “Resisting the lure of the paycheck: Freedom and dependence in financial self-help”. Foucault Studies, No.18, pp. 90-112.
Fridman, Daniel (2010). “From Rats to Riches: Game Playing and the Production of the Capitalist Self”, Qualitative Sociology, Volume 33, Issue 4, pp. 423-446.
Fridman, Daniel (2010). “A New Mentality for a New Economy: Performing the Homo Economicus in Argentina (1976-1983),” Economy and Society, Volume 39, Issue 2, pp. 271-302.
Fridman, Daniel (2008). “La creación de los consumidores en la última dictadura argentina,” Apuntes de Investigación, Nº14, pp. 71-92.
Fridman, Daniel and David Sheinin (2007). “Wild Bulls, Discarded Foreigners, and Brash Champions: U.S. Empire and the Cultural Constructions of Argentine Boxers,” Left History, Vol. 12, Nº1, Spring/Summer, pp. 52-77.
Fridman, Daniel and David Sheinin (2007). “Toros salvajes, extranjeros descartados y campeones insolentes: Estados Unidos y la construcción cultural de los boxeadores argentinos”. Apuntes de Investigación, 13 (2008), pp. 178-205.
Sheinin, David and Daniel Fridman (2006). “The Last Champions: Boxing, Violence, and American Cultural Influences in 1970s Argentina,” Latin American Essays, XIX, pp. 79-96.
Other Writing (op eds, blogs, soccer, politics, etc.)
"Economic Sociology in Argentina" (with Ariel Wilkis), Newsletter of the ASA Economic Sociology Section.
“How American Financial Self-Help Travels Around the World”, Consume This! (blog of the ASA Section on Consumers and Consumption)
"Price Gouging has its defenders, but they ignore morality", Dallas Morning News.
“Trump honed his appeal selling financial success books”, Work in Progress: Sociology on the economy, work and inequality (blog cosponsored by four sections of the ASA)
"Does Being Rich Equate Being Smart?", Dallas Morning News.
"Candidato Rico, Votantes Pobres", La Nación.
"Notion that Wealth is a Reflection of ‘Smarts’ is Wrong", The Austin American-Statesman.
“The Trumpman Show,” Revista Anfibia.
“Elecciones presidenciales en Estados Unidos: El circo de las primarias,” Revista Anfibia.
“El soccer es un deporte estúpido,” Revista Anfibia (with Gabriela Polit Dueñas).Profile Pages
External Links
- Interview: "La dictadura militar construyó un sujeto neoliberal que hizo posible el menemismo" (in Spanish)
- Interview for TV show 'El Preguntador' (in Spanish)
- Examining the Economic Self, by Susanna Sharpe (Life & Letters, College of Liberal Arts Magazine)
- Centro de Estudios Sociales de la Economía, UNSAM, Argentina
- Estudios de la Economía network
- Charisma network - Consumer market studies
- Bio at Revista Anfibia (in Spanish)
- Profile at Portal (LLILAS Benson Annual Review)
- Interview in La Nación+ TV
- Interview in Página/12