SOME SELECTED ASPECTS OF AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 1959 TO DECEMBER 1960
In: The annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Volume 337, p. 146-459
ISSN: 0002-7162
This survey is one of a series of papers on the soc sci's written at the invitation of the Amer Academy of Pol'al & Soc Sci. A typology of current sociol'al orientations - pure sci, action, & signif - is proposed on the basis of diff's in the rigor of methodology employed, degree of value-neutrality, self-conception of function, & the nature of the intended audience. Recent developments in Parsonian theory, functionalism, studies on comparative soc structure, & some empirical studies are examined as contemporary illustrations of pure sci. It is concluded 'the utility of the Parsonian thesaurus was still moot at the end of 1960, the functionalist orientation which explicitly informs his work & that of much middle-range theory as well emerged relatively intact'; that the excellence of the type of comparative res carried on by Inkeles 'is both an achievement & a promise'; & that the most 'conspicuous recent departure from past practice in empirical sociol has been the increasing reliance on sophisticated techniques of multi-variate analysis to help in the construction of concepts & to establish complex linkages between them.' A signif issue is defined as a 'controversy which is discussed in the faculty club, in undergraduate classes in sociol, in graduate courses in US civilization & generally ignored in the Amer. Sociol. Rev.' The intellectual ancestry, language, mood, method, & self-imagery of sociol'ts who deal with such issues is briefly treated. The signif issues in 1960, the 'value question,' the soc ethic,' & the 'pop explosion' are identified & discussed. Evidence is cited indicating a possible rapprochement between the partisans of Pure Science & Signif & expresses the hope 'that out of this dialectical interplay between opposing tendencies there will emerge at last the needed propulsion for a mature sci of sociol.' AA.
