Pioneers of Sociological Science Statistical Foundations and the Theory of Action

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.

Introduction; 1. The Beginnings: Graunt and Halley; 2. Quetelet and his Critics; 3. The English Statisticians: Galton, Pearson and Yule: Appendix: The English Statisticians and the Cambridge Economists; 4. The Sample Survey Specialists: Kiaer, Bowley and Neyman; 5. Weber and the Concept of Action; 6. From Columbia to Chicago: Ogburn and Sociology as Science; 7. From Chicago back to Columbia: Stouffer, Lazarsfeld and Merton: Appendix: The Missing Link? – Karl Popper; 8. Duncan and Sociology as a Population Science; 9. The Return to the Concept of Action and Micro-Macro Relations: Coleman and Boudon; 10. Conclusion: Progress and Prospects.

John H. Goldthorpe is Official Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, a Fellow of the British Academy, a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.