John H. Goldthorpe

This book offers a journey through the problems and the progress of the discipline of sociology in the UK and Europe throughout the second half of the twentieth century via an exploration of seven social settings from the life of a now eminent sociologist. It conceptualises the complex relation that exists between being and knowing, and between the personal knowledge that comes from lived experience and the essentially impersonal knowledge that any science seeks to pursue. The seven – very contrasting – settings are described in detail, together with reference to some of their leading personalities, such as David Glass, Karl Popper, Norbert Elias, Sebastian Sprott, Richard Hoggart, Noel Annan, E. M. Forster, Gösta Rehn, Chelly Halsey, Fred Hirsch and Jürgen Habermas. In each case, the author shows how his lived experience within these settings formed a substratum of his sociology and how he navigated the line between personal knowledge as a creative resource and personal knowledge as potential bias using methodological discipline. It will ultimately appeal to those with interests in sociology, philosophy of science, sociological histories, and biographical methods.

This book offers a journey through the problems and the progress of the discipline of sociology in the UK and Europe throughout the second half of the twentieth century via an exploration of seven social settings from the life of a now eminent sociologist. It conceptualises the complex relation that exists between being and knowing, and between the personal knowledge that comes from lived experience and the essentially impersonal knowledge that any science seeks to pursue. The seven – very contrasting – settings are described in detail, together with reference to some of their leading personalities, such as David Glass, Karl Popper, Norbert Elias, Sebastian Sprott, Richard Hoggart, Noel Annan, E. M. Forster, Gösta Rehn, Chelly Halsey, Fred Hirsch and Jürgen Habermas. In each case, the author shows how his lived experience within these settings formed a substratum of his sociology and how he navigated the line between personal knowledge as a creative resource and personal knowledge as potential bias using methodological discipline. It will ultimately appeal to those with interests in sociology, philosophy of science, sociological histories, and biographical methods.

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.

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.

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.

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.

see copy for volume one.

see copy for volume one.

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. 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.

This paperback edition makes more widely available an important text for scholars and students on an aspect of Irish society that has been inadequately covered elsewhere. Ireland is one of the nations of the western world in which industrialization was longest delayed. In these papers, sociologists, economists and political scientists offer 'rich and original insights into how Irish society has developed, particularly over the last 30 years' (Irish Times). Questions of the typicality or 'exceptionalism' of the Irish experience are discussed, and the relevance of this experience for current theories of industrialism and 'modernization' is critically examined.

Originally published in 1980, but out of print for some time, this book is now again available.

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.