Peter Abell (born 1939) is a British social scientist, currently professor emeritus at the London School of Economics where he has founded and directed the "Interdisciplinary Institute of Management".
Academic career
Abell earned a
BSc in physical chemistry from the University of Leeds in 1960, where he was a Brotherton Scholar. He completed a
PhD in Ligand field theory in 1964 and also began (but did not complete) an MA in philosophy of science due to his academic appointment at the University of Essex.
His early academic career began at Essex, where he rose from research assistant to senior lecturer between 1965 and 1971. He went on to hold professorships and leadership roles at Imperial College London, the University of Birmingham, and the University of Surrey, where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Human Studies. In 1990, he became the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Institute of Management at LSE, where he served until 2003. He continues his affiliation with LSE as a part-time emeritus professor.
Abell has also held visiting appointments at several international institutions, including the University of California (Santa Barbara and Berkeley), the Copenhagen Business School, and the University of Chicago. He is a founding fellow of the European Sociological Association.
Research and contributions
Bayesian narratives
Abell developed the concept of Bayesian narratives, a methodological framework that applies Bayesian inference to narrative explanations of social actions. This approach allows researchers to trace causality through sequences of events, blending case-based reasoning with probabilistic logic. His 2009 paper “A Case for Cases” and later work explore how such narratives can supplement traditional variable-based sociological analysis.
Structural balance and signed networks
Abell has made significant contributions to structural balance theory, particularly in signed social networks—networks with both positive and negative ties. His research, including the 2009 paper co-authored with Mark Ludwig, uses dynamic models and simulations to explore how balanced and unbalanced structures evolve, with implications for group formation and conflict dynamics.
Sociological measurement and methodology
In early foundational work, Abell addressed how measurement systems can be formalized in sociology. His late 1960s papers introduced ordinal graph-based approaches to understanding social structure and linked these methods to broader theoretical frameworks.
Other notable research
Abell has contributed to the study of cooperatives, particularly in developing countries, with a focus on organizational structure and participatory governance.
[Abell, Peter. Establishing Support Systems for Industrial Co-operatives: Case Studies from the Third World. Geneva: International Labour Organization, 1983.] He was involved in the Industrial Democracy in Europe (IDE) project, a major comparative study on employee participation across European workplaces.
[Industrial Democracy in Europe Team. Industrial Democracy in Europe: The Results of a European Survey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.] His research includes work on sequential rationality, challenging standard rational choice models.
[Abell, Peter. "Rational Choice Theory: Problems and Prospects." In Coleman, J. & Fararo, T. (eds.) Rational Choice Theory: Advocacy and Critique. London: Sage, 1991, pp. 13–29.] He has also worked on formalizing narrative explanations to integrate qualitative and quantitative methods in the social sciences.
[Abell, Peter. "Narrative Explanation: An Alternative to Variable-Centered Explanation?" Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 28, 2002, pp. 287–310.]
Consulting and policy work
Abell is known for his contribution to mathematical social science, both quantitative and qualitative. He is the author of several books on methodology and individual participation and co-operation
and currently focuses on an approach he coined
Bayesian narratives and on
Social network particularly the role of
Balance theory in group formation and identity change.
Abell has served as a consultant to various public and international bodies, including the British Board of Trade, the Roskill Commission on the Third London Airport, UNIDO, and the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). He contributed to studies on industrial relations, producer cooperatives, and PhD completion rates. He was also involved in European Union-funded management training programs in Cuba, Bulgaria, and Kazakhstan.
Editorial and professional roles
Abell has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals, including Sociology, Economic and Industrial Democracy, Rationality and Society, and the Journal of Mathematical Sociology. He was a founding director of LSE's summer school in management and coordinated the London External Degree in Management for a decade.
He is a fellow of the European Academy of Sociology and has supervised over 30 PhD students. He has also served as an external examiner for doctoral theses at Oxford, Imperial College London, and Manchester University.
Political activism
During the 1960s, Abell was active in anti-nuclear demonstrations organized by the Committee of 100. He advocated for civil disobedience and nuclear disarmament, participating in mass protests in
Trafalgar Square and elsewhere in
London.
and in his youth advocated for civil disobedience and nuclear disarmament.
Selected publications
Books
Book chapters
Journal articles
External links
