Alvin W. Gouldner

Originally published in 1965, this was the first analysis from the viewpoints of modern sociology and social psychology of the social structure and culture of ancient Greece. The book examines Greece’s class system (with special attention to slavery), its various solutions to the problems of social identity, and its system of international relations as a background for what was also the first intensive analysis by a modern sociologist of Plato’s social theory. This study is then used to develop a more general framework within which modern social theory may be viewed and appraised in its relation to classical social thought. The book will be of interest to sociologists, classicists, political scientists, historians, anthropologists and of course philosophers.

Originally published in 1955, this book examines the social background of the community and the organization at gypsum plant in the USA in 1950 where this strike occurred. It traces the lines of authority and communication between management, foremen and workers and analyses the clique groupings of the men in the plant. The author reports on what individuals thought of their jobs, their supervisors and their associates. With this background, it is possible to understand the specific events which led to the instigation and spread of the wildcat strike – to see what touched it off, how it could have been avoided and how it had to be settled. The book concentrates on the physical, emotional and social conditions which caused the strike and from this study draw conclusions pointing toward a general theory of group tensions. This classic book will be of interest to those studying the history of industrial relations.

Alvin W. Gouldner takes readers through a case study of modern factory administrations in order to reveal the relations between workers and management at an industrial plant and in the community outside of it.The process of bureaucratization is found to be composed of three distinct tendencies: the “mock bureaucratization” pattern, characterized by the failure to enforce or obey rules; the “representative” pattern, where rules are both enforced by management and obeyed by works; or the “punishment-centered bureaucracy,” where management attempts regular enforcement, but is resisted by workers. Scientific interest in bureaucracy and in the general theory of organization requires the accumulation of a large body of research data and empirical evidence. Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy, informed through by a strong theoretical grasp of the material, is one of the major contributions to the literature of these fields.