CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Toward a Critique of Sociology 3
Sociology as Popular Culture 4
New Sentiments, Old Theories 7
Sociology and the New Left: A Paradox 9
Criticism and the Historical Perspective 15
CHAPTER 2: Sociology and Sub-Sociology 20
Toward a Sociology of Sociology 25
The Character of Sociology 27
Background and Domain Assumptions 29
The Importance of Domain Assumptions: A Research Note 36
Sentiments and Theory 37
Personal Reality and Social Theory 40
The Infrastructure of Social Theory 46
Theoretical Infrastructure and Ideology 47
Methodology as Ideology 49
The Autonomy of Social Structure as Domain Assumption 51
The Contradiction of Autonomy 54
CHAPTER 3: Utilitarian Culture and Sociology 61
The Middle Class and Utilitarian Culture 61
Anomie: The Normal Pathology of Utilitarianism 65
The Unemployed Self 73
The Pecuniary Paradigm of Utility 74
The Welfare State and the Disposal and Control of the Useless 76
The Psychedelic Revolt Against Utilitarianism 78
The Limits of the Welfare State 80
Utilitarian Culture and Social Theory 82
CHAPTER 4: What Happened in Sociology: An Historical Model of Structural Development 88
PERIOD I: SOCIOLOGICAL POSITIVISM 89
Sociology as a Counterbalance to Individualistic Utilitarianism
The Extrusion of the Economic from the Social
Positivist Grand Theory and the Restoration Stalemate
Detachment and Objectivity
Positivism: Between Restoration and Revolution
PERIOD II: MARXISM 108
The Social Utilitarianism of Marxism
The Binary Fission of Marxism and Academic Sociology
Positivism and Subsequent Functionalism
The Schism between Romantic and Utilitarian Cultural Syndromes
PERIOD III: CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGY 116
The Decline of Evolutionism and Rise of Functionalism
Differentiation of the German and French Responses to Utilitarianism
Continuities between Positivism and Functionalism
The Problem of Anthropology and Sociology in England
Functionalism in English Anthropology
The Extrusion of Religion
Sociology’s Integration into the University
PERIOD IV: PARSONSIAN STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONALISM 138
Structural-Functionalism as a Synthesis of French Functionalism and German Romanticism
The Sociology of Morals: A Structural Lacuna in Sociology
Structural-Functionalism in the Context of the Great Depression
The General Crisis of Middle-Class Society and Parsonsianism
Internationalization of Academic Sociology
Positivism and Parsons: From Scientism to Professionalism
THE BEGINNING OF A NEW PERIOD: EMERGING TRENDS 157
Marxism and Academic Sociology: Schism and Growing Polycentrism
Parsonsianism: Impending Entropy
CHAPTER 5: The Early Parsons 167
The Importance of Parsons 167
University Structure and Theoretical Detachment 169
Parsons at Harvard 172
The Debate About Capitalism 178
Toward the Perfection of Capitalism 182
The Drift Toward Theoretical Voluntarism 185
Alienation and Voluntarism 189
The Liberalization of Functionalism 195
CHAPTER 6 Making the World Whole: Parsons as a Systems Analyst 199
Notes Toward a Sociology of Theoretical Obscurity 200
The Conceptual System as Icon 205
Parsons as System Analyst 210
Problems of System Analysis 210
System Interdependence 213
Functional Autonomy and Interdependence 215
Moral Codes as Conductors of Tension 217
The Social System and the Self 218
Anomie as De-Differentiation 224
Weighting the System Elements 226
Equilibrium Problems 231
Declining Marginal Utility of Conformity 232
Constraint and the Price of Conformity 234
Scarcity and Supply of Gratifications 236
Reciprocity, Complementarity, and Exploitation 239
Equilibrium and Power Disparities 242
CHAPTER 7: The Moralistics of Talcott Parsons: Religion, Piety, and the Quest for Order in Functionalism 246
Latent Identities 246
The Durkheimian Dilemma 248
Functionalism and the Problem of Order 251
Religion and Morality in Functionalism 254
Functionalism and Religion: Some Survey Data 258
The Piety of Functionalism 262
Social Bases of Moral Concern 266
Morality and Imputed Non Partisanship 273
Positivism and the Moral Crisis of Industrialism 274
Morality and Scarcity Under Industrialism 278
Some Dilemmas and Prospects 282
CHAPTER 8: Parsons on Power and Wealth 286
The Problematics of Power 290
Making American Society Whole: The Importance of Being Rich 297
Toward a Sociology of Property 304
Talcott Parsons on C. Wright Mills 313
Achievement, Ascription, and the Family 320
Anomie and Property Institutions 323
Differentiation of the Prestige Hierarchy and Moral Code 326
The Nature of Functionalist Conservatism: A Summary and Overview 331
Functionalism as Value Unfree 333
CHAPTER 9: The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology, I: The Shift toward the Welfare State 341
The Welfare State and Functionalism 342
Pressure of the Welfare State 344
Change Theory 351
Aspects of Parsons’ Change Analysis 353
The Drift Toward Marxism 354
Differentiation: The Forces Versus the Relations of Production 357
The Parsons-Marx Convergence in Evolutionism 362
Smelser and Moore: The Functionalist Convergence With Marxism 368
CHAPTER 10: The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology, II: The Entropy of Functionalism and the Rise of New Theories 373
Entropy and the Seed Group 374
The Disaffection of the Young 376
Other Symptoms of the Crisis: Goffman’s Dramaturgy 378
Ethnomethodology: Sociology as a Happening 390
Homans: The Tough-Minded World of Exchange 395
Theory and Its Infrastructure 396
New Left and New Infrastructure 399
Social Theory and the University 402
Theory, Infrastructure, and New Generations 404
Sociology and the New Left 405
Résumé 410
CHAPTER 11: From Plato to Parsons: The Infrastructure of Conservative Social Theory 412
The Partially Good World 414
Ambivalence Toward Society 415
Is Evil Real? 417
The World as Good and Evil 418
No Society, No Humanness 419
The Metaphysics of Hierarchy 421
An Orderly World 422
The Legitimate and the Authentic 423
Deviance and Anomie 425
The Costs of Conformity 428
Insatiable Man 430
Pessimism: Death and the Human Condition 432
The Viability of the Functionalist Infrastructure 435
The Potential of a Radical Sociology 437
A Note on the Future of Sociology 443
CHAPTER 12: Notes on the Crisis of Marxism and the Emergence of Academic Sociology in the Soviet Union 447
The Crisis Of Soviet Marxism: The Linguistics Controversy 452
Functionalism Goes East 455
Academic Sociology in the Soviet Bloc 459
Social Sources Of Academic Sociology in the Soviet Union 463
The Mandate of Soviet Sociology: Societal Integration 465
A Model of the Structural Sources of the Institutionalization of Academic Sociology 467
The Coming Readjustment in World Sociology 473
Institutes and University Contexts for Sociology 476
CHAPTER 13: Living as a Sociologist: Toward a Reflexive Sociology 481
Social Theory And Personal Reality In “The Coming Crisis Of Western Sociology” 482
Social Worlds, Permitted and Unpermitted 484
Toward a Reflexive Sociology 488
Sociology and the Liberal Technologues 500
Reflexive Sociology and Radical Sociology 503
Reflexive Sociology as a Work Ethic 504
History and Biography: a Slippage 507
Reflexive Sociology Looks at Itself 510
Index 513
SOURCE: Gouldner, Alvin W. The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology. New York, Basic Books, 1970. See also:
For Sociology: Renewal and Critique in Sociology Today. New York: Basic Books, 1973.
For my overview and notes on Gouldner see my page Alvin Gouldner: Notes & Commentary. See esp. my notes on Gouldner’s defense of The Coming Crisis in For Sociology:
Alvin Gouldner: Notes & Commentary
by R. Dumain
Alvin Gouldner on the New Class & the Culture of Critical Discourse
"Theory and Ideology" by Alvin Gouldner
Alvin Gouldner on Intellectuals & the Social Totality
Romanticism and Classicism: Deep Structures in Social Science by Alvin Gouldner
The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology: The Origins, Grammar, and Future of Ideology by Alvin Gouldner
"Prologue to a Theory of Revolutionary Intellectuals" by Alvin W. Gouldner
"Stalinism: A Study of Internal Colonialism" by Alvin W. Gouldner
Jeff Schmidt on Ideology and Professionals
C. Wright Mills condemns American sociology (1943)
Du
Bois on Religion (Contents)
ed. by Phil Zuckerman
“The Failure of the Negro Intellectual”
by E. Franklin Frazier
The Philosophy of Theory and Practice: Selected Bibliography
Positivism vs Life Philosophy (Lebensphilosophie) Study Guide
Philosophy and the Division of Labor: Selected Bibliography
Reflexivity & Situatedness Study Guide
More offsite:
Alvin Gouldner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Excellence, Reflexivity, and Racism: On Sociology’s Nuclear Contradiction and Its Abiding Crisis
by Michael D. Kennedy, Prabhdeep S. Kehal, and Laura Garbes
(February 3, 2018)
Alvin W. Gouldner and Industrial Sociology at Columbia University
by James Chriss (2001)
Slow
Thoughts for Fast Times: Why Mills and Not Gouldner
by Charles Lemert
(Fast Capitalism, 1.2, 2005)
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