THE IDEA OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE: Papers in Honor of Robert K. Merton

Lewis A. Coser (ed.)

About the Book

Written and compiled by friends and former students, The Idea of Social Structure honors Robert K. Merton, considered one of the premier sociologists of the twentieth century. Along with Talcott Parsons and Marion J. Levy, Merton was emphatic in his use of the term “social structure”— however different they were in defining and refining the term. The chapters in this volume address many of Merton’s diverse sociological theories and, in turn, his theories’ impact upon a very large sociological territory.
The volume includes major statements on the context of working with Merton by Lewis A. Coser, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Robert A. Nisbet, and Seymour Martin Lipset, as well as memorable statements covering Merton’s interests in the sociology of knowledge and science, planning communities, medical education, relative deprivation, everyday life, political roles, and communication media. This is a powerful sourcebook for understanding the work of Merton and of his intellectual successors.
Nisbet called the decade of the 1930s among the most vital and creative periods in American history. It was certainly a period of intense struggle—political, military, and ideological. But the formation of modern sociology was without question one of the crowning achievements in the scientific evolution of the century. The volume is sharply focused on Merton’s work and deeply appreciative of the nature of his contribution. It is a landmark effort in the study of sociology as history.

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Contents

ROBERT K. MERTON: THE MAN AND THE WORK
•    Merton and the Contemporary Mind: An Affectionate Dialogue  /  Lewis A. Coser
•    Merton’s Theory of Social Structure  /  Arthur L. Stinchcombe
•    Working with Merton  /  Paul F. Lazarsfeld
•    The Present Status of Structural–Functional Theory in Sociology  /  Talcott Parsons
•    Merton’s Uses of the European Sociological Tradition  /  Lewis A. Coser
ON THE SHOULDERS OF MERTON
•    Toward a New View of the Sociology of Knowledge  /  Bernard Barber
•    Structural Constraints of Status Complements  /  Peter M. Blau
•    The Emergence of a Scientific Specialty: The Self-Exemplifying Case of the Sociology of Science  / Jonathan R. Cole and Harriet Zuckerman
•    The Growth of Scientific Knowledge: Theories of Deviance as a Case Study  /  Stephen Cole
•    Legitimate and Illegitimate Use of Power  /  James S. Coleman
•    The Complexity of Roles as a Seedbed of Individual Autonomy  /  Rose Laub Coser
•    Reference Individuals and Reference Idols  /  Herbert H. Hyman
•    The Planning of Communities: Anticipations and Hindsights  /  Suzanne Keller
•    Theory and Research: The Case of Studies in Medical Education  /  Patricia Kendall
•    Ironic Perspective and Sociological Thought  /  Louis Schneider
•    On Formalizing Theory  /  Hanan C. Selvin
•    Relative Deprivation  /  Robin M. Williams, Jr.
•    Social Structure and Mass Communications Behavior: Exploring Patterns through Constructional Analysis  /  Charles R. Wright
IN THE SPIRIT OF MERTON
•    Sociology and the Everyday Life  /  Alvin W. Gouldner
•    Intellectual Types and Political Roles  /  Seymour Martin Lipset
•    The Myth of the Renaissance  /  Robert Nisbet
•    The Writings of Robert K. Merton: A Bibliography  /  Mary Wilson Miles

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About the Author / Editor

Lewis A. Coser (1913–2003) began his career teaching at the University of Chicago followed by the University of California. Upon leaving California he went to teach for fifteen years at Brandeis University, where he founded the sociology department, before finally settling in at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He was the first sociologist to bring together the ideas of conflict theory and structural functionalism. He is a past American Sociologist Association president and author of many works, including Conflict and Consensus, Masters of Sociological Thought, and The Functions of Social Conflict.

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