William Edward Burghardt DuBois (W.E.B. DuBois) was a writer, educator, civil rights activist, sociologist, and editor. He became one of the key voices in the argument over the role of the black man in modern America through his seemingly endless works of social activism. Du Bois was, an American sociologist best known for his scholarship on race and racism in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. He was the first African-American to earn a doctorate from Harvard University and served as the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910. His most notable works include "The Souls of Black Folk," in which he advanced his theory of "double consciousness," and his massive tome on the social structure of U.S. society, "Black Reconstruction."
W.E.B Dubois was a highly decorated and accomplished sociologist and one of the first proponents of race-conflict theory. He began his work at a time when race was considered a purely biological differentiation.
W. E. B. DuBois: A Resource Guide
W.E.B. DuBois (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
W.E.B. DuBois’ Visionary Infographics
W.E.B. DuBois and the Concepts of Race and Class
W.E.B. DuBois, Race, and Human Rights
The Crisis (The Modernist Journals Project
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U.S. sociologist Patricia Hill Collins (born 1948) is one of the most revered practitioners of the field alive today. She is a ground-breaking theorist and researcher in the areas of feminism and race and is most well-known for popularizing the theoretical concept of intersectionality, which emphasizes the intersecting nature of race, class, gender, and sexuality as systems of oppression. She has written numerous books and scholarly articles. Some of the most widely read are "Black Feminist Thought," and the article "Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought," published in 1986.
Patricia Hill Collins offers a set of analytical tools for those wishing to develop intersectionality's capability to theorize social inequality in ways that would facilitate social change. While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods. ~Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory
A New Perspective with Patricia Hill Collins
Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory - PMC (nih.gov)
Patricia Hill Collins explains BLACK FEMINIST THOUGHT | #1 Controlling images
Common grounds and crossroads - race, ethnicity, class in women's lives
Black sexual politics : African Americans, gender, and the new racism
From Black power to hip hop racism, nationalism, and feminism
Patricia Hill Collins (1948-living) -This is a link to her presidential address during the 2009 American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meeting
French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) is known as the founder of positivism and is credited with coining the term sociology. Comte helped shape and expand the field of sociology and placed a great deal of emphasis on his work on systematic observation and social order. Comte’s main contribution to positivist philosophy falls into five parts: his rigorous adoption of the scientific method; his law of the three states or stages of intellectual development; his classification of the sciences; his conception of the incomplete philosophy of each of these sciences anterior to sociology; and his synthesis of a positivist social philosophy in a unified form, Britannica
The term sociology was coined by French philosopher Auguste Comte in 1838, who for this reason is known as the “Father of Sociology.” Comte felt that science could be used to study the social world. Comte thought that scientific analyses could also discover the laws governing our social lives. It was in this context that Comte introduced the concept of positivism to sociology — a way to understand the social world based on scientific facts. He believed that, with this new understanding, people could build a better future. He envisioned a process of social change in which sociologists played crucial roles in guiding society.
Auguste Comte's philosophy of positivism | Britannica
Becker defined deviance as a social creation in which “social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders.” Becker grouped behavior into four categories: falsely accused, conforming, pure deviant, and secret deviant.
Howard S Becker was an American sociologist known for his studies of occupations, education, deviance, and art. Becker defined deviance as a social creation in which “social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labeling them as outsiders.” Becker grouped behavior into four categories: falsely accused, conforming, pure deviant, and secret deviant. Becker’s most famous book, Outsiders (1963), is viewed as the cultural product of interactions between people whose occupations involved either committing crimes or catching criminals. It represented a major turning point in the sociology of deviance. In Art Worlds (1982), a book that greatly influenced the sociology of art, Becker examined the cultural contexts of the “art worlds”) in which artists produce their work. Courtesy of Britannica
Labeling Theory of Deviance In Sociology: Definitions & Examples
Émile Durkheim, French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) is known as the "father of sociology" and is a founding figure in the field. He is credited with making sociology a science. One of his most famous pieces of work is "Suicide: A Study In Sociology," which describes the common characteristics of people who commit suicide. Another important work of his that focuses on how society functions and regulates itself is "The Division of Labor in Society." He introduced the term "anomie". Anomie, in societies or individuals, is a condition of instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or from a lack of purpose or ideals. Courtesy of Britannica
How Emile Durkheim Made His Mark on Sociology
Emile Durkheim – Major Concepts and Works
According to Durkheim, there are three main aspects to Durkheim’s theory of crime:
Courtesy of Karl Thompson
Durkheim argued that crime is an inevitable and normal aspect of social life. He pointed out that crime is inevitable in all societies, and that the crime rate was in fact higher in more advanced, industrial societies.
Morris Janowitz was an American sociologist and professor who made major contributions to sociological theory, the study of prejudice, urban issues, and patriotism. He was one of the founders of military sociology and made major contributions, along with Samuel Huntington, to the establishment of contemporary civil-military relations. He founded the Heritage of Sociology series at the University of Chicago Press and served as editor for twenty years.
Military sociology is a subfield of sociology. Military sociology is similar to medical sociology and other institutional studies such as the sociologies of education, family, sport, and religion, taking organization matters as the main focus and studying them systemically. Military sociology as a substantive field within sociology transcends the institutional and examines a broad range of social activities. Military sociology is sociological in the sense of capturing the breadth and depth of the field of sociology to include social psychology and small groups to management and leadership of societies and cultures. Courtesy of Encylopedia.com
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
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German political economist Karl Marx (1818–1883) is one of the most famous figures in the founding of sociology. He is known for his theory of historical materialism, which focuses on the way social order, like class structure and hierarchy, emerges out of the economic system of a society. He theorized this relationship as a dialectic between the base and superstructure of society. Some of his notable works, like "The Manifesto of the Communist Party," were co-written with German philosopher Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). Much of his theory is contained in the series of volumes titled Capital. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and in a 1999 BBC poll he was voted the "thinker of the millennium" by people from around the world.
What Is Social Class, and Why Does it Matter? How Sociologists Define and Study the Concept
Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) was a prominent British writer and political activist, and one of the earliest Western sociologists and founders of the discipline. Her scholarship focused on the intersections of politics, morals, and society, and she wrote prolifically about sexism and gender roles. Harriet Martineau's theory of sociology entailed her belief that social reform was a necessity in order to improve better conditions for everyone. Also, she felt humans should live in accordance with natural laws while emphasizing science, education, and religious tolerance.
Her social theoretical perspective was often focused on the moral stance of a populace and how it did or did not correspond to the social, economic, and political relations of its society.
U.S. sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) is known for his controversial critiques of both contemporary society and sociological practice, particularly in his book "The Sociological Imagination" (1959). He also studied power and class in the United States, as displayed in his book "The Power Elite" (1956).
Radical ambition : C. Wright Mills, the left, and American social thought
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J Pascoe is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon where she teaches courses on sexuality, masculinity, social psychology, and gender. Her current research focuses on masculinity, youth, homophobia, sexuality and new media. Dr. Pascoe has explored issues of gender based violence, young people’s new media use, bullying, harassment and education through a variety of research projects. Dr. Pascoe lectures widely to academic and public audiences on contemporary issues facing young people and schools such as bullying, harassment, gender inequality, and homophobia. Courtesy of University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences
A Conversation with Dr. C.J. Pascoe
Sociologist C.J. Pascoe talks bullying at Elmhurst College
Sociologist to Present ‘Bullied: Youth, Gender and Homophobia
Personal Website: http://www.cjpascoe.org/
Juliet Schor is an economist and sociologist at Boston College. Schor’s research focuses on work, consumption, and climate change. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Schor received her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard University for 17 years, in the Department of Economics and the Committee on Degrees in Women's Studies. Since 2011 Schor has been studying the “sharing” and “gig” economies. Institute for New Economic Thinking
She has studied trends in working time, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women’s issues and Economic inequality, and the environment and concerns about climate change. From 2010 to 2017 she studied the sharing economy under a large research project funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
Economist Juliet Schor on Inequality & Climate Crisis (thenextsystem.org)
"[ECO]nomics" with Juliet Schor
The Case for a 4-Day Work Week | Juliet Schor | TED
Juliet Schor: The Impact of Consumption & Working Hours on Climate
[The image comes from “The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.”]
Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) was a British philosopher and sociologist, sociologist who was one of the first to think of social life in terms of social systems. He saw societies as organisms that progressed through a process of evolution similar to that experienced by living species. Spencer also played an important role in the development of the functionalist perspective.
Spencer conceived a vast 10-volume work, Synthetic Philosophy, in which all phenomena were to be interpreted according to the principle of evolutionary progress. In First Principles (1862), the first of the projected volumes, he distinguished phenomena from what he called the unknowable—an incomprehensible power or force from which everything derives. He limited knowledge to phenomena, i.e., the manifestations of the unknowable, and maintained that these manifestations proceed from their source according to a process of evolution. From CREDO Herbert Spencer: Columbia Encyclopedia.
Max Weber (1864-1920) is considered to be one of the founders of modern sociology. This image is in the public domain.
(April 21, 1864- June 14, 1920). Max Weber was a German sociologist, mysticism philosopher, and political economist. He was best known for his thesis combining economic sociology and sociology of religion. His ideas influenced social theory, social research, and the entire discipline of sociology. Weber is often cited, with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as among the three founding architects of sociology.
Weber was a key proponent of methodological anti-positivism, arguing for the study of social action through interpretive (rather than purely empiricist) means, based on understanding the purpose and meaning that individuals attach to their own actions. Weber's main intellectual concern was understanding the processes of rationalization, secularization, and "disenchantment" that he associated with the rise of capitalism and modernity, and which he saw as the result of a new way of thinking about the world. Courtesy of New Mexico State University.
Biography of Max Weber (thoughtco.com)
Max Weber’s Types of Social Action – Explained in Simple Words
Thorstein Veblen, (1857-1929), American economist and social scientist who sought to apply an evolutionary, dynamic approach to the study of economic institutions. With The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) he won fame in literary circles, and, in describing the life of the wealthy, he coined phrases—conspicuous consumption and pecuniary emulation—that are still widely used. Thorstein Veblen was an economist noted for his contributions to the development of American institutionalist economics. Veblen is best known for developing the concept of conspicuous consumption, or excessive consumption for the sake of signaling social status. Courtesy of Britannica
The Theory of the Leisure Class
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929): Economics
