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Alvin W. Gouldner: Outlaw Sociologist
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11101 |
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BOOK WORLD
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3 / 1986 |
4,313 Words |
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Paul Piccone
Paul Piccone is the editor of Telos, a scholarly journal. |
Uneasily located between journalism and bureaucratic administration, much contemporary sociology tends to have a relatively short shelf life. It comes with the pitfalls of both poles, and generally, its products hardly survive the context within which they are produced other than as historical artifacts with only minimal residual documentary value. This is why most professional sociology journals, filled with impeccable collected information and properly written in the predominant disciplinary jargon, suffer from built-in obsolescence and go roughly the way of last week's papers: to collect in dusty dungeons of university libraries rather than to be recycled for their full content. Only the works of a few exceptional scholars tend to transcend this bitter fate and remain as lasting contributions for anyone seeking mastery of the field or attempting to better understand oneself and society.
Professionally Isolated
The contributions of Alvin W. Gouldner, however, are exceptional. His first two books on labor relations and bureaucracies-polished, repackaged drafts of his doctoral dissertation-have long since become sociological classics. His later contributions, on Marxism and the role of the intellectuals, some of which have appeared posthumously, are already providing the main parameters for the crucial issues facing sociology and public discourse for at least the rest of the century: the future of personal freedom and equality.
One of the troublesome fractures of Alvin Gouldner's work, however, is that, although increasingly cited by intellectuals in general, it has not received the kind of attention that it deserves from other
... (1996 of 27030 Characters)
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