Inspired by discussions at a series of mini-conferences organized by Harrison White at the Lazarsfeld Center,[8] Emirbayer began to write a systematic statement regarding the "relational turn" he felt was necessary for sociology.[2] In 1997 he published the Manifesto for Relational Sociology[9] in the American Journal of Sociology, which brought various social theorists together under one label.
His most-cited publication, with Ann Mische, is their 1998 article "What is Agency?"[10] In the article, the authors apply "relational pragmatics" to demonstrate the "dynamic interplay" of routine, purpose and judgement in explaining human agency.
In 2009 he was elected to the Chair of the Sociological Theory Section of the American Sociological Association. Also in 2009 he won the Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda-Setting.[11]
In 2014, Emirbayer was a keynote speaker at Yale's Center for Cultural Sociology special conference on "Advancing Cultural Sociology".[12]
^Emirbayer, Mustafa; Goodwin, Jeff (1994). "Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Jeff Goodwin. "Network analysis, culture, and the problem of agency." American Journal of Sociology (1994): 1411–1454". American Journal of Sociology. 99 (6): 1411–1454. doi:10.1086/230450. JSTOR2782580. S2CID143965662.
^Mische, Ann (2011). "Relational sociology, culture, and agency". In John Scott; Peter J. Carrington (eds.). The SAGE Handbook of Social Network Analysis. pp. 80–97.