Professor Cohen's major interests include the sociology of everyday life, contemporary and classical social theory, the sociology of modernity, and the history of social thought. He currently is writing a book (under contract with Polity Press) with the working title: On the Sociology of Solitary Action.

Professor Cohen served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology and as General Editor of the Modernity and Society series for Blackwell Publishers. He serves as an Associate Editor of Theory, Culture, and Society and he served a term as a member of the International Advisory Board of Sociology: The Journal of the British Sociological Association. He was elected to a 3 year term as Member of the Council Theory Section, American Sociological Association and he has chaired both the Nominations Committee and the Theory Prize Committee for the section. Professor Cohen has given guerst lectures at the Department of Sociology, Tblisi State University, Republic of Georgia and the Department of Sociology, University of Naples, Ferderico II.

Professor Cohen is well-known for his publications on structuration theory. They include: Structuration Theory: Anthony Giddens and the Constitution of Social Life (London: Macmillan/New York St. Martins). A Spanish translation is also available (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana); "Structuration Theory" in George Ritzer (ed.) Encyclopedia of Social Theory (London:Sage); "Anthony Giddens" in Rob Stones (ed.) Key Sociological Thinkers (London: Macmillan). Translated into Farsi.;"Structuration Theory and Social Order" in Clark and Modgil, Anthony Giddens:Critical Assessments (Philadelphia; Falmer);"La Securité Ontologique, La Face Sociale at la Question de la Motivation dans la Theoric de la Structuration" in Michel Audet and Hamid Bouchiki, Structuration du Social et Modernité (Sainte-Foy : Les Presses de L'Universite' Lava);"Structuration Theory and Social Praxis" in Giddens and Turner Social Theory Today. (Cambridge: Polity). Translated into Spanish; "The Status of Structuration Theory" Theory, Culture, and Society Vol. 3:1.