Goldthorpe reveals the genealogy of present-day sociological science through studies of the key contributions made by seventeen pioneers in the field, ranging from John Graunt and Edmond Halley in the mid-seventeenth century to Otis Dudley Duncan, James Coleman and Raymond Boudon in the late twentieth. Goldthorpe's biographies of these figures and analyses of their work reveal clear lines of intellectual descent, building towards the author's model of sociology as the study of human populations across time and place, previously outlined in his book Sociology as a Population Science (Cambridge, 2015). The extent to which recent developments such as computational sociology and analytical sociology are in continuation with the efforts of these influential thinkers is also critically examined. Pioneers of Sociological Science will appeal to students and scholars of sociology and to anyone engaged in social science research, from statisticians to social historians.

Goldthorpe reveals the genealogy of present-day sociological science through studies of the key contributions made by seventeen pioneers in the field, ranging from John Graunt and Edmond Halley in the mid-seventeenth century to Otis Dudley Duncan, James Coleman and Raymond Boudon in the late twentieth. Goldthorpe's biographies of these figures and analyses of their work reveal clear lines of intellectual descent, building towards the author's model of sociology as the study of human populations across time and place, previously outlined in his book Sociology as a Population Science (Cambridge, 2015). The extent to which recent developments such as computational sociology and analytical sociology are in continuation with the efforts of these influential thinkers is also critically examined. Pioneers of Sociological Science will appeal to students and scholars of sociology and to anyone engaged in social science research, from statisticians to social historians.

On Sociology-extensively revised, updated, and enlarged for this second edition-addresses the current state of the discipline. Looking to unify increasingly disparate areas of theory and research, John Goldthorpe presents a new mainstream for sociology, combining the demonstrated strengths of large-scale quantitative research and the explanatory power of social action theory. The author's wide-ranging mastery, extending over comparative macro-sociology, applications of rational action theory, and philosophical and theoretical debates on causality, to key questions in educational attainment and class analysis and to the history of statistics in the social sciences, make this an essential book for any sociologist. The collection of closely interlinked essays is presented in two volumes. Volume One begins with a series of critical essays that focus on methodological problems in certain styles of sociological work. The underlying theme is the need for recognition of a common "logic of inference" that must underpin qualitative and quantitative work alike. Volume Two illustrates and applies a new mainstream program, addressing various topics in social stratification to highlight different aspects of the integration of research and theory. Volume Two ends with two retrospective essays that place the concerns of On Sociology in the context of the history of the discipline in both the United States and Europe.

On Sociology - extensively revised, updated, and enlarged for this second edition - addresses the current state of the discipline. Looking to unify increasingly disparate areas of theory and research, John Goldthorpe presents a new mainstream for sociology, combining the demonstrated strengths of large-scale quantitative research and the explanatory power of social action theory. The author's wide-ranging mastery, extending over comparative macro-sociology, applications of rational action theory, and philosophical and theoretical debates on causality, to key questions in educational attainment and class analysis and to the history of statistics in the social sciences, make this an essential book for any sociologist. The collection of closely interlinked essays is presented in two volumes. Volume One begins with a series of critical essays that focus on methodological problems in certain styles of sociological work. The underlying theme is the need for recognition of a common logic of inference that must underpin qualitative and quantitative work alike. various topics in social stratification to highlight different aspects of the integration of research and theory. Volume Two ends with two retrospective essays that place the concerns of On Sociology in the context of the history of the discipline in both the United States and Europe.

This final book in The Affluent Worker series was originally published in 1969. It contains the findings and conclusions on the issues the research was specifically designed to investigate - the extent of working class embourgeoisment. This thesis is examined in the several contexts of work, sociability, social aspirations and imagery, and so on. At all these points it is called into question empirically and conceptually. In this volume which brings the project to an end, the authors also take up again the broad questions of class and politics out of which the investigation originally sprang.

This 1968 volume, the second of The Affluent Worker monographs, reports on the voting and political attitudes of highly paid manual workers. As in the first book, the affluent workers studied are employed in Luton, a town which benefited faster and more consistently than almost any other in Britain from the economic progress of the 'fifties and early 'sixties. The sample was chosen as a 'critical' case to test some widely accepted views on the assimilation of the working classes into patterns of middle-class social life. On the basis of material from interviews, the authors give an account of the workers' political orientations, and this is followed by an analysis of voting in relationship to income house ownership, social origin and trade union membership. The main findings - that, despite their affluence, the majority of these workers remain staunch supporters of the Labour Party - runs counter to contemporary beliefs about working-class embourgeoisement.

The affluent workers studied in this book, originally published in 1968, were employees of three major industrial concerns sited in Luton at the time. The three firms were selected as being amongst Luton's best-paying employers and also on account of their advanced personnel and labour relations policies. This choice enabled comparisons to be made between workers engaged in very different types of production system. On the basis of material from interviews and other data, the authors examine in detail workers' experience of their industrial jobs, their relations with workmates, and the nature of their attachment both to the organizations which employ them and to their trade unions. This study forms part of a larger project which was aimed at testing empirically the thesis, which was most prevalent 1968, that of the progressive assimilation of manual workers and their families into the pattern of middle class social life.

John Goldthorpe is one of Britain's most eminent sociologists and a strong advocate of quantitative sociology. In this concise and accessible book, he provides a new rationale for recent developments in sociology which focus on establishing and explaining probabilistic regularities in human populations. Through these developments, Goldthorpe shows how sociology has become more securely placed within the 'probabilistic revolution' that has occurred over the last century in the natural and social sciences alike. The central arguments of the book are illustrated with examples from different areas of sociology, ranging from social stratification and the sociology of the family to the sociology of revolutions. He concludes by considering the implications of these arguments for the proper boundaries of sociology, for its relations with other disciplines, and for its public role.

Building upon extensive research into modern British society, this book traces out trends in social mobility and their relation to educational inequalities, with surprising results. Contrary to what is widely supposed, Bukodi and Goldthorpe's findings show there has been no overall decline in social mobility - though downward mobility is tending to rise and upward mobility to fall - and Britain is not a distinctively low mobility society. However, the inequalities of mobility chances among individuals, in relation to their social origins, have not been reduced and remain in some respects extreme. Exposing the widespread misconceptions that prevail in political and policy circles, this book shows that educational policy alone cannot break the link between inequality of condition and inequality of opportunity. It will appeal to students, researchers, policy makers, and anyone interested in the issues surrounding social inequality, social mobility and education.

John Goldthorpe is one of Britain's most eminent sociologists and a strong advocate of quantitative sociology. In this concise and accessible book, he provides a new rationale for recent developments in sociology which focus on establishing and explaining probabilistic regularities in human populations. Through these developments, Goldthorpe shows how sociology has become more securely placed within the 'probabilistic revolution' that has occurred over the last century in the natural and social sciences alike. The central arguments of the book are illustrated with examples from different areas of sociology, ranging from social stratification and the sociology of the family to the sociology of revolutions. He concludes by considering the implications of these arguments for the proper boundaries of sociology, for its relations with other disciplines, and for its public role.

Building upon extensive research into modern British society, this book traces out trends in social mobility and their relation to educational inequalities, with surprising results. Contrary to what is widely supposed, Bukodi and Goldthorpe's findings show there has been no overall decline in social mobility - though downward mobility is tending to rise and upward mobility to fall - and Britain is not a distinctively low mobility society. However, the inequalities of mobility chances among individuals, in relation to their social origins, have not been reduced and remain in some respects extreme. Exposing the widespread misconceptions that prevail in political and policy circles, this book shows that educational policy alone cannot break the link between inequality of condition and inequality of opportunity. It will appeal to students, researchers, policy makers, and anyone interested in the issues surrounding social inequality, social mobility and education.

On Sociology - extensively revised, updated, and enlarged for this second edition - addresses the current state of the discipline. Looking to unify increasingly disparate areas of theory and research, John Goldthorpe presents a new mainstream for sociology, combining the demonstrated strengths of large-scale quantitative research and the explanatory power of social action theory. The author's wide-ranging mastery, extending over comparative macro-sociology, applications of rational action theory, and philosophical and theoretical debates on causality, to key questions in educational attainment and class analysis and to the history of statistics in the social sciences, make this an essential book for any sociologist. The collection of closely interlinked essays is presented in two volumes. Volume One begins with a series of critical essays that focus on methodological problems in certain styles of sociological work. The underlying theme is the need for recognition of a common logic of inference that must underpin qualitative and quantitative work alike. various topics in social stratification to highlight different aspects of the integration of research and theory. Volume Two ends with two retrospective essays that place the concerns of On Sociology in the context of the history of the discipline in both the United States and Europe.

On Sociology-extensively revised, updated, and enlarged for this second edition-addresses the current state of the discipline. Looking to unify increasingly disparate areas of theory and research, John Goldthorpe presents a new mainstream for sociology, combining the demonstrated strengths of large-scale quantitative research and the explanatory power of social action theory. The author's wide-ranging mastery, extending over comparative macro-sociology, applications of rational action theory, and philosophical and theoretical debates on causality, to key questions in educational attainment and class analysis and to the history of statistics in the social sciences, make this an essential book for any sociologist. The collection of closely interlinked essays is presented in two volumes. Volume One begins with a series of critical essays that focus on methodological problems in certain styles of sociological work. The underlying theme is the need for recognition of a common "logic of inference" that must underpin qualitative and quantitative work alike. Volume Two illustrates and applies a new mainstream program, addressing various topics in social stratification to highlight different aspects of the integration of research and theory. Volume Two ends with two retrospective essays that place the concerns of On Sociology in the context of the history of the discipline in both the United States and Europe.

Sonst so unterschiedl iche Autoren wie Thomas S. Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, Robert K. Merton und Gerald Holton haben uns darauf aufmerksam gemacht, dass in der Wissenschaftsgeschichte nicht Tradition, auch nicht Kontinuitat und schon gar ni cht Fol geri chti gkeit das Regi ment fuhren. Das Geschehen, schreibt Merton in Auf den Schultern von Riesen, "ist stets auf dem Ab sprung, verwei st naCliVorne, ruckwartSOcleraur-di e Sei te" und ni cht ohne Grund nimmt in . . seiner Wissenschaftsgeschichte das Interesse an Vorweg-, Wiederauf- und Ubernahmen, d. h. an Antizipation, Tradition und Plagiat einen so breiten Raum ein. Die hier vorgeschlagenen Einteilungskriterien von Innovation, Erneuerung und Kontinuitat entsprechen weder genau den Merton'schen Kategorien, noch stehen sie in einer direkten Beziehung zu den zeitlichen Dimensionen von Zukunft, Gegenwart und Vergangenheit. Zur Rechtfertigung unserer Einteilungskriterien mochten wir auch nicht Mertons Metapher vom Zwergen bemuhen, der, auf den Schultern von Riesen stehend, weiter sehen kann als der Riese. Denn dieses Bild hat seine Tucken, erhebt sich doch die Frage, wie der Zwerg auf die Schultern des Riesen gelangt oder was mit ihm passiert, wenn - wie offenbar in der Geschichte der Wissenschaft oft geschehen - der Riese ins Wanken gerat oder gar sturzt. Als wissenschaftlicher Prozess lasst sich die Analyse sozialer Ungleichheit, wie sie sich im gegenwartigen Forschungsstand widerspiegelt, am besten durch die Gleichzeitigkeit und den Wechsel von Phasen der Kontinuitat, Erneuerung und Innovation verstandlich machen. Um Wissenschaft betreiben und verstehen zu konnen, sind alle drei Phasen gleichermassen notwendig."

One of the world's leading sociologists presents for the first time his comprehensive view of the aims and tools of modern sociology. The book will provoke debate about cogent and controversial theories of the way we understand modern industrial society.

The second edition of this classic study, fully updated and extended, now includes an analysis of recent trends in intergenerational mobility, the class mobility of women, and views of social mobility in modern Britain from a cross-national perspective.