Social Theory and Social Structure

Introduction

Robert K. Merton, a sociologist at Columbia University who had studied with Parsons and Pitirim Sorokin at Harvard, published the collection in 1949 and enlarged it in 1957 and 1968. Its introduction argues for “theories of the middle range” between all-embracing systems and theory-free fact-gathering. The essay on functional analysis distinguishes manifest from latent functions – the urban political machine, for instance, helps immigrants in ways reformers overlook – and introduces dysfunctions and functional alternatives. Other essays include “Social Structure and Anomie” (1938), with its typology of conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion, the essay on the self-fulfilling prophecy, illustrated by a run on a sound bank, and studies of reference groups, bureaucracy and the sociology of science.

Connections

Builds on

• The Rules of Sociological Method1895 · Émile Durkheim