Smelser, Neil J(oseph) (1930- )

US sociologist. His works on comparative methodology, economic development, social change, and collective behaviour include Sociology of Economic Life (1963, later revised), Sociological Theory (1976), and Social Paralysis and Social Change (1991).

He was born in Kahoka, Missouri. Educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities, he trained as a psychoanalyst. He taught at the University of California from 1958.