James S. Coleman

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1958.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1958.

"There is in modem society a structural change that underlies many of the social changes with which the conference was concerned. My argument here will be that this is a qualitative change in the way society is organized, a change with many implications. I will call this a change from primordial and spontaneous social organization to constructed social organization (see Coleman 1990, Chapters 2, 3, and 24 for an extended examination of this change). The common definitions of these terms contain some hint of what I mean, but I will describe the change more fully to ensure that it is clearly understood. By primordial social organization I mean social organization that has its origins in the relationships established by childbirth. Not all these relations are activated in all cultures, but some subset of these relations forms the basis for all primitive and traditional social organization. From these relations, more complex structures unfold. For example, from these relations come families; from families come clans; from clans, villages; and from villages, tribes, ethnicities, or societies."

This book presents a major report that has evoked extensive controversy and initiated extensive policy debate on equality and achievement in education. It examines the concept of equality of educational opportunity and the relations between equality and achievement and between families and schools.

"There is in modem society a structural change that underlies many of the social changes with which the conference was concerned. My argument here will be that this is a qualitative change in the way society is organized, a change with many implications. I will call this a change from primordial and spontaneous social organization to constructed social organization (see Coleman 1990, Chapters 2, 3, and 24 for an extended examination of this change). The common definitions of these terms contain some hint of what I mean, but I will describe the change more fully to ensure that it is clearly understood. By primordial social organization I mean social organization that has its origins in the relationships established by childbirth. Not all these relations are activated in all cultures, but some subset of these relations forms the basis for all primitive and traditional social organization. From these relations, more complex structures unfold. For example, from these relations come families; from families come clans; from clans, villages; and from villages, tribes, ethnicities, or societies."

This book presents a major report that has evoked extensive controversy and initiated extensive policy debate on equality and achievement in education. It examines the concept of equality of educational opportunity and the relations between equality and achievement and between families and schools.

Wieder lieferbar ab Juli 2010 "Hier haben wir eine Rarit t in der Soziologie vor uns: eine koh rente, scharfsinnige Analyse der ganzen Vielfalt von Kernproblemen der Disziplin - das Selbst, individuelle und soziale Entscheidung, Familie, Normen, Herrschaft, Macht, kollektives Handeln, B rokratie, Revolution -, die berzeugend und pr zise genug ist, um formale Modelle zur Dynamik sozialer Systeme zu erm glichen." Michael T. Hannan, Cornell University "Grundlagen der Sozialtheorie ist eine seltene Kombination von theoretischer Tragweite und Pr zision, soziologischer Vorstellungskraft und bedeutenden Ideen zum Wesen der modernen Gesellschaft. Diese Kombination ist in der Soziologie derzeit einzigartig." Aage B. S rensen

James Smoot Coleman was the leading theorist of his time in African political studies. His work fused liberal-democratic idealism and scientific realism. These essays represent the evolution of his thought from deep insight into African nationalism to a refined theory of modernization. The collection is an indispensable contribution to the intellectual history of comparative African politics, essential to scholars and others who grapple with problems in African development.

"Hier haben wir eine Raritat in der Soziologie vor uns: eine koharente, scharfsinnige Analyse der ganzen Vielfalt von Kernproblemen der Disziplin - das Selbst, individuelle und soziale Entscheidung, Familie, Normen, Herrschaft, Macht, kollektives Handeln, Burokratie, Revolution -, die uberzeugend und prazise genug ist, um formale Modelle zur Dynamik sozialer Systeme zu ermoglichen." Michael T. Hannan, Cornell University."

This book is a series of five lectures given in 1981 at Syracuse University, each couples with a concluding 'dialogue' where the author poses questions and objections to his own essays and then answers them. Coleman sees the book as the extension of his 1973 volume, Power and the Structure of Society, and as the second step in the construction of sociological theory about an emerging 'social structure that is not as most of me colleagues would see it.'