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Getting Sociology Right

A Half-Century of Reflections
by Neil J. Smelser (Author)
Hardcover eBook
Price: $65.00 / £55.00
Publication Date: Apr 2014
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780520282070
Trim Size: 6 x 9
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About the Book

Neil J. Smelser, one of the most important and influential American sociologists, traces the discipline of sociology from 1969 to the early twenty-first century in Getting Sociology Right: A Half-Century of Reflections. Examining sociology as a vocation and building on the work of Talcott Parsons, Smelser discusses his views on the discipline of sociology and shows how his perspective of the field evolved in the postwar era.

About the Author

Neil J. Smelser is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University from 1952 to 1954. At twenty-four, he coauthored Economy and Society with Talcott Parsons. He earned his PhD in sociology from Harvard in 1958 and was a junior fellow of the Society of Fellows. From 1994 to 2001, he directed the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I Early Searching
1. The Optimum Scope of Sociology (1969)
2. Sociology and the Other Social Sciences (1967)
3. Some Personal Thoughts on the Pursuit of Sociological Problems (1969)

Part II Later Explorations
4. Biography, the Structure of Explanation, and the Evaluation of Research in Sociology (1980)
5. External Influences on Sociology (1990)
6. Sociology’s Next Decades: Centrifugality, Conflict, Accommodation (1990)
7. Sociology as Science, Humanism, and Art (1994)
8. Problematics in the Internationalization of Social Science Knowledge (1991)
9. Social Sciences and Social Problems: The Next Century (1995)
10. The Questionable Logic of “Mistakes” in the Dynamics of Knowledge Growth in the Social Sciences (2005)

Part III Some Recent Reflections
11. Looking Back at Twenty-Five Years of Sociology and the Annual Review of Sociology (1999)
12. Sociological and Interdisciplinary Adventures: A Personal Odyssey (2)

Afterword
Index

Reviews

"Smelser is an outstanding sociologist, who has devoted a lot of attention to the status of his own discipline. His understanding of the content, methods, and uses of sociology is of the sort that can be reached only by the active researcher and theorist whose substantive contribution are highly significant. This collection of formerly published articles is not random but unified by a single theme: the evolving views of the author on the discipline of sociology which have not lost any of their relevance."—Piotr Sztompka, professor of theoretical sociology at the Jagiellonian University at Krakow, Poland

"Smelser's reflections are important for the balanced assessment they offer of the scope and inherent tensions of the discipline, and the forces which shape it. The sociology of the twenty-first century will be better for the rescue of this wisdom."—Lyn Spillman, University of Notre Dame.

"A master of more disciplines than any living sociologist, Smelser's pellucid work spans from the mid-20th century until today. Getting Sociology Right provides participant observation about the extraordinary disciplinary shifts that have marked the last seven decades.These essays tell us where American sociology has been, and a lot about where it may be going, too."—Jeffrey Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, Yale University

"In this lucid and captivating book, Neil Smelser combines his deep experience and knowledge of the discipline of sociology together with his wide ranging vision across all of the social sciences.  This collection of essays, produced over a 50 year period, is a window into the evolution of the social sciences and the unique challenges and triumphs of the sociological perspective.  It is also a fascinating look at a long and successful individual career. Getting Sociology Right  is a stimulating, provocative, wise, and surprisingly fresh book that I hope every young sociologist will learn from."—Mary C. Waters, M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology, Harvard University