The Department of Social Relations and "Systems Theory" at Harvard: 1948-50

In: International journal of politics, culture and society, Band 13, Heft 4, S. 607-648

Abstract

Recounts personal experiences as a graduate student in Harvard U's (Cambridge, MA) Dept of Social Relations during the time of Talcott Parsons to examine how Parsons's systems theory became the dominant international theoretical orientation. The 1948/49 interdisciplinary proseminar in the department & the aims of the basic social science approach there are detailed, & faculty & student backgrounds, faculty-student relations, & intradepartmental conflicts are described. Parsons was in control of his main intellectual project -- framing a theory for a democratic social system. He managed to convert his many students to his belief that his theory of social action was all encompassing, & he then sent them out to disseminate the theory. Even though the number of students exposed increased exponentially, it was also the commanding prestige of Harvard & the efforts of professional organizers in the discipline that spread the theory so widely. 1 Appendix. M. Pflum