Josh Whitford is an American sociologist and an associate professor at Columbia University.
He is the son of University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School Professor William Whitford.
In February 2007, he was named an Industry Studies Fellow by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
His research focuses on the social, political and institutional implications of productive decentralization (outsourcing) in manufacturing industries in both the United States and Europe.
[3][4] He is the author of The New Old Economy: Networks, Institutions and the Organizational Transformation of American Manufacturing (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 9780199286010).