Twentieth-Century Sociology

Sociology, as we know it in the 1980s, draws upon the firm foundation developed by Emile Durk­heim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx. However, the discipline has certainly not remained stagnant over the last century. Sociologists have gained new insights which have helped them to better understand the workings of society.

Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) was typi­cal of the sociologists who became prominent in the early 1900s. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Cooley received his graduate training in econom­ics but later became a sociology professor at the University of Michigan. Like other early sociolo­gists, he became interested in this "new" disci­pline while pursuing a related area of study.

Cooley shared the desire of Durkheim, Weber, and Marx to learn more about society. But to do so effectively, Cooley preferred to use the socio­logical perspective to look first at smaller units— intimate, face-to-face groups such as families, gangs, and friendship networks. He saw these groups as the seedbeds of society in the sense that they shape people's ideals, beliefs, values, and social nature. Cooley's work brought new under­standing to groups of relatively small size.

Many of the leading American sociologists of the early 1900s saw themselves as social reform­ers dedicated to systematically studying and then improving a corrupt society. They were genuinely concerned about the lives of immigrants in the nation's growing cities, whether the immigrants came from Europe or the American south. However, in the middle of the twentieth century, the focus of the discipline shifted. Sociologists restricted themselves to theo­rizing and gathering information and took less interest in transforming society.

Sociologist Robert Merton has had an important influence on the discipline by arguing that sociology should strive to bring the macro and micro approaches together. Born in 1910 of Slavic immigrant parents in Philadelphia, Merton subsequently won a scholarship to Tem­ple University. He continued his studies at Har­vard University, where he acquired his lifelong interest in sociology. His teaching career has been based at Columbia University, and he has gained great respect within the field of sociology by com­bining theory and research.

According to Merton, sociologists should avoid the extremes of generalizations without facts and facts without theories. The solution, in his view, is to seek out middle-range theories—explanations of general behavior that are firmly rooted in re­search or observation and are sensibly restricted in their application. Such explanations lie be­tween observations about day-to-day events and all-inclusive attempts to develop a unified theory.

Merton has produced a middle-range theory that is one of the most frequently cited theories of deviant behavior. He noted different ways that people try to be successful in life. In his view, some may not share the socially agreed-upon goal of accumulating material goods or the accepted means of achieving this goal. For example, in Merton's classification scheme, "innovators" are people who accept the goal of pursuing material wealth but use illegal means to do so, including robbery, burglary, and extortion. Merton's expla­nation of crime is based on individual behavior— influenced by society's approved goals and means—yet it has wider applications. It helps to account for the high crime rates among the na­tion's poor, who may see no hope of advancing themselves through traditional roads to success.

Contemporary sociology reflects the diverse contributions of earlier theorists. As sociologists approach such topics as divorce, drug addiction, and religious cults, they can draw upon the theo­retical insights of the discipline's early pioneers. A careful reader can hear Comte, Spencer, Durk­heim, Weber, Marx, Cooley, and many others speaking through the pages of current research. In describing the work of today's sociologists, it is helpful to examine a number of influential theo­retical approaches.