Max Weber was a founding figure of the field of
sociology and is considered one of the most
Research Work in Sociology
List of foreign and filipino sociologist and
their respective contribution to sociological
knowledge.
Throughout sociology's history, there have been
many famous sociologists who have left their
mark on the field of sociology as well as the
world at large.
FOREIGN SOCIOLOGISTS:
August Comte is known as the founder of
positivism and is credited with coininging the
term sociology. Comte helped shape and
expand the field of sociology and placed a great
deal of emphasis in his work on systematic
observation and social order.
Karl Marx is one of the most famous figures in
the founding of sociology. He is known for his
theory of historical materialism, which focuses
on the way social order, like class structure and
hierarchy, emerges out of the economic system
of a society. He theorized this relationship as a
dialectic between the base and superstructure
of society. Some of his notable works, like "The
Manifesto of the Communist Party," were co-
written with Friedrich Engels. Much of his
theory is contained in the series of volumes
titled Capital. Marx has been described as one
of the most influential figures in human history,
and in a 1999 BBC poll was voted the "thinker of
the millennium" by people from around the
world.
Emile Durkheim is knows as the "father of
sociology" and is a founding figure in the field of
sociology. He is credited with making sociology
a science. One of his most famous pieces of
work includes Suicide: A Study In Sociology, and
another important work of his that focuses on
how society functions and regulates itself is The
Division of Labor in Society.
famous sociologists in history. He is known for
his thesis of the "Protestant Ethic" as well as his
ideas on bureaucracy. Click here to learn more
about Weber's take on how Protestant religious
values combined with the early capitalist
economy in the American colonies to create the
ideological and economic foundation of the
U.S., and here to read about his famous theory
of the "iron cage."
Harriet Martineau ,Though wrongfully
neglected in most sociology classes today she
was a prominent British writer and political
activist, and one of the earliest Western
sociologists and founders of the discipline. Her
scholarship focused on the intersections of
politics, morals, and society, and she wrote
prolifically about sexism and gender roles.
W.E.B. Du Bois was an American sociologist
best known for his scholarship on race and
racism in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. He
was the first African American to earn a
doctorate degree from Harvard University and
served as the head of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) in 1910. His most notable works
include The Souls of Black Folk, in which he
advanced his theory of "double consciousness,"
and his massive tome on the social structure of
U.S. society, Black Reconstruction.
Alexis de Tocqueville Biography of Alexis de
Tocqueville, a sociologist best known for his
book Democracy in America. Tocqueville
published many works in the areas of
comparative and historical sociology and was
very active in politics and the field of political
science.
Antonio Gramsci was an Italian political activist
and journalist who wrote prolific social theory
while imprisoned by Mussolini's fascist
government from 1926-34. He advanced Marx's
theory by focusing on the role of intellectuals,
politics, and media in maintaining the
dominance of the bourgeois class in a capitalist
system. The concept of cultural hegemony is
one of his key contributions.
Michel Foucault was a French social theorist,
philosopher, historian, public intellectual and
activist best known for revealing through his
method of "archaeology" how institutions wield
power by creating discourses that are used to
control people. He is one of the most widely
read and cited social theorists, and his
theoretical contributions are still important and
relevant today.
C. Wright Mills is known for his controversial
critiques of both contemporary society and
sociological practice, particularly in his book The
Sociological Imagination (1959). He also studied
power and class in the United States, as
displayed in his book The Power Elite (1956).
Patricia Hill Collins is one of the most revered
sociologists alive today. She is a ground-
breaking theorist and research in the areas of
feminism and race, and is most well known for
popularizing the theoretical concept of
intersectionality, which emphasizes the
intersecting nature of race, class, gender, and
sexuality as systems of oppression. She has
written numerous books and scholarly articles.
Some of the most widely read are Black
Feminist Thought, and the article "Learning
from the Outsider Within: The Sociological
Significance of Black Feminist Thought,"
published in 1986.
Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist and
philosopher who contributed a great deal in the
areas of general sociological theory and the link
between education and culture. He pioneering
terminologies such include habitus, symbolic
violence, and cultural capital, and he is known
for his work titled Distinction: A Social Critique
of the Judgment of Taste.
Robert K. Merton is considered one of
America's most influential social scientists. He is
famous for his theories of deviance as well as
for developing the concepts of "self-fulfilling
prophecy" and "role model."
Herbert Spencer was a British sociologist who
was one of the first to think of social life in
terms of social systems. He saw societies as
organisms that progressed through a process of
evolution similar to that experienced by living
species. Spencer also played an important role
in the development of the functionalist
perspective.
Charles Horton Cooley is best known for his
theories of The Looking Glass Self in which he
declared that our self-concepts and identities
are a reflection of how other people perceive
us. He is also famous for developing the
concepts of primary and secondary
relationships. He was a founding member and
eighth president of the American Sociological
Association.
George Herbert Mead is well-know for his
theory of the social self, which is based on the
central argument that the self is a social
emergent. He pioneered the development of
symbolic interaction perspective and developed
the concept of the "I" and "Me." He is also one
of the founders of social psychology.
Erving Goffman is a significant thinker in the
field of sociology and in particular the symbolic
interaction perspective. He is known for his
writings on the dramaturgical perspective and
pioneered the study of face-to-face interaction.
His notable books include The Presentation of
Self in Everyday Life, and Stigma: Notes on the
Management of Spoiled Identity. He served as
the 73rd President of the American Sociological
Association and is listed as the 6th most-cited
intellectual in the humanities and social
sciences by The Times Higher Education Guide.
Georg Simmel, a sociologist best known for his
neo-Kantian approach to sociology, which laid
the foundations for sociological anti positivism,
and his structuralist styles of reasoning.
Jurgen Habermas is a German sociologist and
philosopher in the tradition of critical theory
and pragmatism. He is known for his theory of
rationality and for his concept of
modernity. According to Habermas, there are
three types of formal reasoning: cognitive-
instrumental reason (which is used in sciences),
moral-practical reason (which concerns ethics
and morality) and aesthetic-expressive reason
(concerning the arts). His interest is in the
second, particularly when understanding the
breakdown of traditional religious strictures. He
is currently ranked as one of the most
influential philosophers in the world and is a
prominent figure in Germany as a public
intellectual. In 2007, Habermas was listed as the
7th most-cited author in the humanities by The
Higher Times Education Guide.
Anthony Giddens is a British sociologist best
known for his theory of structuration, his
holistic view of modern societies, and his
political philosophy called the Third Way.
Giddens is a prominent contributor to the field
of sociology with 34 published books in at least
29 languages.
Talcott Parsons, a sociologist best known for
laying the foundation for what would become
the modern functionalist perspective. He is
regarded by many as the twentieth century's
most influential American sociologist.
Erich Fromm was a sociologist, also a
psychologist and while in the USA, he became a
vocal critic of the work of Sigmund Freud. As an
Orthodox Jew, he focused heavily on the
meaning behind certain biblical stories,
particularly the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Yet
he departed in that he saw their actions as both
a virtue and indicative of human independence
of thought and curiosity.
Eileen Vartan Barker, one of the most
celebrated sociologists in the modern era, she
has dedicated most of her research career to
understanding a number of concepts
surrounding religion – especially cults and
new religious movements and the curious
phenomena of brainwashing. This she set up in
relation with the Church of England and the
British government. Though most of her studies
and published work concern the Moonies, a lot
of her concepts can apply to any other cult or
religion where brainwashing could be used as a
tool of control and dependency.
Nancy Fraser is one of the most noteworthy
feminist thinkers concerning the concept of
social justice. Most notably, her theory is that
justice must contain three concepts:
distribution (of resources), recognition (of the
varying contributions of different groups), and
representation (linguistic). She has been an
advocate of Marxists campaigning for greater
social contribution as well as fairer distribution
(which she sees as its main concept). In her
famous work Redistribution or Recognition?
Fraser investigates this concept that certain
roles should be given greater value.
Jane Addams, one of the most prominent
female sociologists in a time before feminism,
Addams is seen as a quite remarkable person
for her valuable contribution to the discipline.
She was also a peace protester, a member of
the Anti Imperialist League and started a
Settlement House in the 1880s after reading
inspiring Christian literature and travelling to
London to visit Toynbee Hall. Once there, she
came to understand the vital part they played in
cultural connections and to integrating settlers
into 19th century America.
Zygmunt Bauman – as a Polish native – was
driven out of his country in the early 1970s by
the Communist regime; he has lived in England
ever since. As a (non-practising) Jew who lived
through both World War II (fighting for the
Soviet Polish First Army) and then through
communist invasion, much of his career has
been dedicated to writing social theory on the
holocaust, but also modernity, postmodern
consumerism and liquid modernity, particularly
in relation to rationality and changing social
values of the 1980s.
Ibn Khaldun lived in 14th century Tunisia and is
said to be the grandfather of modern sociology;
he is also considered one of the greatest
philosophers anywhere in the Muslim world. He
first formulated the concept of social conflict
and the much-used idea today of a
“generation―. Most importantly, he is
responsible for coming up with the ideas of
tribalism and social cohesion and their
importance to society.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (March 16, 1927 –
March 26, 2003) was an American politician and
sociologist. He focused on the deep roots of
black poverty in America and concluded
controversially that the relative absence of
nuclear families (those having both a father and
mother present) would greatly hinder further
progress toward economic and political
equality.
Harry Edwards (born November 22, 1942) is an
African-American sociologist who took his PhD
at Cornell University and is Professor Emeritus
of Sociology at the University of California,
Berkeley. He was one of the first students to
study black sociology. After receiving his M.A. in
1966, Edwards took a temporary leave from
Cornell to teach at SJS as a visiting professor
during the 1966-1968 academic years. In 1971
Edwards earned his Ph.D. from Cornell and
became a sociology professor at the University
of California, Berkeley. While there he
developed the field of race and the sociology of
sport. Edwards retired from the University of
California on June 30, 2000. He continues to
lecture and write books on black athletes and
amateur and professional sports.
Francisco Pascasio Moreno (May 31, 1852 –
November 22, 1919) was a prominent explorer
and academic in Argentina, where he is usually
referred to as Perito Moreno (perito means
"specialist, expert"). Perito Moreno has been
credited as one of the most influential figures in
the Argentine incorporation of large parts of
Patagonia. He was appointed as chief of the
Argentine exploring commission of the southern
territories, and member of numerous European
scientific societies. For his contributions to
science, Moreno received a doctorate Honoris
causa from the National University of Córdoba
in 1877. He is also known for his role in
defending Argentine interests. He made
defining surveys that led to the Boundary treaty
of 1881 between Chile and Argentina. These
surveys and others yielded Moreno a vast
collection of archaeological and anthropological
data and artifacts, for which he founded an
anthropological museum in Buenos Aires in
1877.[2]
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (Czech: [ˈtomaːʃ ˈɡarɪk
ˈmasarɪk]), sometimes called Thomas Masaryk
in English (7 March 1850 – 14 September 1937),
was a Czechoslovak politician, sociologist and
philosopher, who as an eager advocate of
Czechoslovak independence during World War I
became the founder and first President of
Czechoslovakia.[1] He originally wished to
reform the Austro-Hungarian monarchy into a
democratic federal state, but during the First
World War he began to favour the abolition of
the monarchy and, with the help of the Allied
Powers, eventually succeeded. He also founded
Athenaeum, a magazine devoted to Czech
culture and science.[citation needed] Athenaeum
issued in October 15, 1883 (editor was Jan
Otto).
Michael S. Schudson (born November 3, 1946)
is Professor of Journalism in the Graduate
School of Journalism, Columbia University and
Adjunct Professor in the Department of
Sociology. He is Professor Emeritus at the
University of California, San Diego. He is a well-
respected and widely-cited expert in the fields
such as journalism history, media sociology,
political communication, and public culture. He
is the author of six books and editor of two
others concerning the history and sociology of
the American news media, advertising, popular
culture, Watergate and cultural memory. In
2004, he received the Murray Edelman
distinguished career award from the political
communication section of the American
Political Science Association and the
International Communication Association.
John W. Meyer is a sociologist and emeritus
professor at Stanford University, located in Palo
Alto, California. Beginning in the 1970s and
continuing to the present day, Meyer has
contributed fundamental ideas to the field of
sociology, especially in the areas of education,
organizations, and global and transnational
sociology. He is best known for the
development of the neo-institutional
perspective on globalization, known as world
society or World Polity Theory.
Edvard Alexander Westermarck (20 November
1862 – 3 September 1939) was a Finnish
philosopher and sociologist. Among other
subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest
taboo. The phenomenon of reverse sexual
imprinting (when two people live in close
domestic proximity during the first few years in
the life of either one, both are desensitized to
sexual attraction), now known as the
Westermarck effect, was first formally
described by him in his book The History of
Human Marriage (1891).
He has been described as "first Darwinian
sociologist" or "the first sociobiologist".
He helped found academic sociology in the
United Kingdom, becoming the first professor of
sociology (with Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse) in
1907 in the University of London.
Thorstein Bunde Veblen (born Torsten Bunde
Veblen; July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an
American economist and sociologist, and leader
of the institutional economics movement.
Veblen is credited for the main technical
principle used by institutional economists,
known as the Veblenian dichotomy. It is a
distinction between what Veblen called
"institutions" and "technology". Besides his
technical work, Veblen was a popular and witty
critic of capitalism, as illustrated by his best-
known book The Theory of the Leisure Class
(1899). Veblen is famous in the history of
economic thought for combining a Darwinian
evolutionary perspective with his new
institutionalist approach to economic analysis.
He combined sociology with economics in his
masterpiece, The Theory of the Leisure Class
(1899), where he argued that there was a
fundamental split in society between those who
make their way via exploitation and those who
make their way via industry.
Ulrich Beck (May 15, 1944 – January 1, 2015)
was a well known German sociologist, and one
of the most cited social scientists in the world
during his lifetime.[2] His work focused on
questions of uncontrollability, ignorance and
uncertainty in the modern age, and he coined
the terms "risk society" and "second
modernity". He also tried to overturn national
perspectives that predominated in sociological
investigations with a cosmopolitanism that
acknowledges the interconnectedness of the
modern world. He was a professor at the
University of Munich and also held
appointments at the Fondation Maison des
Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) in Paris, and at the
London School of Economics.
Charles Tilly (May 27, 1929 – April 29, 2008[1])
was an American sociologist, political scientist,
and historian who wrote on the relationship
between politics and society. He was professor
of history, sociology, and social science at the
University of Michigan 1969–1984 and in his
last position the Joseph L. Buttenwieser
Professor of Social Science at Columbia
University. He has been described as "the
founding father of 21st-century sociology"[1]
and "one of the world's preeminent sociologists
and historians" as his "scholarship was
unsurpassed, his humanity of the highest order,
his spirit unwavering."[2] After his death,
numerous special journal issues, conferences,
awards and obituaries appeared in his honor.[3]
Nancy Julia Chodorow (born January 20, 1944)
is a feminist sociologist and psychoanalyst.[1]
She has written a number of influential books,
including The Reproduction of Mothering:
Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender
(1978);[2][3] Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory
(1989); Femininities, Masculinities, Sexualities:
Freud and Beyond (1994); and The Power of
Feelings: Personal Meaning in Psychoanalysis,
Gender, and Culture (1999). She is widely
regarded as a leading psychoanalytic feminist
theorist and is a member of the International
Psychoanalytical Association, often speaking at
its congresses.[4] She spent many years as a
professor in the departments of sociology and
clinical psychology at the University of
California, Berkeley. She retired from the
University of California in 2005. The
Reproduction of Mothering was chosen by
Contemporary Sociology as one of the ten most
influential books of the past twenty-five years.
Laurence John "Laurie" Taylor (born 1 August
1936) is an English sociologist and radio
presenter originally from Liverpool. He has a
particular interest in criminology and was one
of the founder members of the National
Deviancy Conference. Perhaps his best known
early work was the book co-written with
Stanley Cohen: Escape Attempts: The Theory
and Practice of Resistance to Everyday Life. The
book arose from research into the wellbeing of
long term prisoners. He has also collaborated
on research with bank robber turned author
John McVicar.
Theodor Holm Nelson (born June 17, 1937) is
an American pioneer of information technology,
philosopher, and sociologist. He coined the
terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in 1963,
and published them in 1965. Nelson has also
been credited as being the first person to use
the words transclusion, virtuality,
intertwingularity, and teledildonics.
Seymour Martin Lipset (March 18, 1922 –
December 31, 2006) was an American political
sociologist, a senior fellow at the Hoover
Institution at Stanford University, and the Hazel
Professor of Public Policy at George Mason
University. His major work was in the fields of
political sociology, trade union organization,
social stratification, public opinion, and the
sociology of intellectual life. He also wrote
extensively about the conditions for democracy
in comparative perspective.
Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein
(/ˈwɔːlərstiːn/;[1] born September 28, 1930) is an
American sociologist, historical social scientist,
and world-systems analyst, arguably best
known for his development of the general
approach in sociology which led to the
emergence of his World-System Theory.[2] He
publishes bimonthly syndicated commentaries
on world affairs.[3]
Julia Kristeva (French: [kʁisteva]; Bulgarian:
Юлия Кръстева; born 24 June 1941) is a
Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic,
psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most
recently, novelist, who has lived in France since
the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the
University Paris Diderot. Kristeva became
influential in international critical analysis,
cultural theory and feminism after publishing
her first book Semeiotikè in 1969. Her sizable
body of work includes books and essays which
address intertextuality, the semiotic, and
abjection, in the fields of linguistics, literary
theory and criticism, psychoanalysis, biography
and autobiography, political and cultural
analysis, art and art history. Her works also
have an important place in post-structuralist
thought.
She is also the founder and head of the Simone
de Beauvoir Prize committee.
Charles Spurgeon Johnson (July 24, 1893 –
October 27, 1956) was an American sociologist
and college administrator, the first black
president of historically black Fisk University,
and a lifelong advocate for racial equality and
the advancement of civil rights for African
Americans and all ethnic minorities. He
preferred to work collaboratively with liberal
white groups in the South, quietly as a "sideline
activist," to get practical results.
Claude S. Fischer is Professor of the Graduate
School in Sociology. He arrived at Berkeley in
1972 with an undergraduate degree from UCLA
and a Ph.D. from Harvard. Most of his early
research focused on the social psychology of
urban life—how and why rural and urban
experiences differ—and on social networks,
both coming together in To Dwell Among
Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City
(1982). In recent years, he has worked on
American social history, beginning with a study
of the early telephone's place in social life,
America Calling: A Social History of the
Telephone to 1940 (1992). Along the way,
Fischer has worked on other topics, including
writing a book on inequality with five Berkeley
colleagues, Inequality by Design: Cracking the
Bell Curve Myth (1996). Fischer was also the
founding editor of Contexts, the American
Sociological Association's magazine of sociology
for the general reader, and its executive editor
through 2004.
Ronald M. Enroth (born October 28, 1938) has
been a Professor of Sociology at Westmont
College[1] in Santa Barbara, California,
prominent evangelical Christian author of books
concerning what he defines as "cults" and "new
religious movements" and important figure in
the Christian countercult movement.
Theodor W. Adorno (/əˈdɔːrnoʊ/; German:
[aˈdɔʀno]; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund;
September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969) was a
German sociologist, philosopher and
musicologist known for his critical theory of
society. Adorno coined the tern ‘identity
thinking’ to describe the process of categorical
thought in modern society, by which everything
becomes an example of an abstract, and thus
nothing individual in its actual specific
uniqueness is allowed to exist.
Dmitry Grigoryevich Glinka (Russian: Дмитрий
Григорьевич Глинка) (July 28, 1808 - May 14,
1883, Lisbon) was a Russian diplomat, privy
councillor in deed, and sociologist. He is the
author of Esquisse d'une théorie du droit naturel
(Berlin, 1835) and La philosophie du droit ou
explication des rapports sociaux (Paris, 1842).
Martha Beatrice Webb, Lady Passfield (née
Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943), was
an English sociologist, economist, socialist,
labour historian and social reformer. Her
husband, Sidney Webb, was created Baron
Passfield in 1929. Along with her husband and
numerous others, Webb co-founded the
London School of Economics and played a
crucial role in forming the Fabian Society. She
coined the term "collective bargaining".
Lewis Samuel Feuer (1912-2002) was an
American sociologist. Initially a committed
Marxist, he became a neo-conservative. His
work ranged across a wide range of fields such
as Marxist and neo-Marxist thought, the
sociology of knowledge, the sociology of
science, sociological theory, ideology and
intellectuals, the history of ideas, the sociology
of generations, the history and sociology of
Jews and Judaism, and philosophy. He was one
of the earliest interpreters of the relationship
between psychoanalysis and philosophy and
produced many studies of the psychoanalytic
dimensions of ideology and intellectual life. His
extensive knowledge of the more arcane
intricacies of Marx's life and a deep love of the
fictional character of Sherlock Holmes were the
basis for a novel entitled The Case of the
Revolutionists Daughter: Sherlock Holmes Meets
Karl Marx (1983). The novel can be read as a
critique of Marx's personal moral failings, which
call into question his philosophy and politics
Amos Henry Hawley (December 5, 1910 –
August 31, 2009)[1] was an American sociologist.
Hawley studied extensively how human
populations interacted with their changing
environments along with the growth of
populations. He focused his studies on the
behavior of populations in terms of
organization, development, and change over
space and time. Hawley contended that "the
environment, population, and the ecosystem
tend to move toward equilibrium" (Human
Ecology,p10). In his book, Human Ecology,
Hawley wrote that humans will modify their
behavior patterns to fit with changes in their
biophysical environment. Through this adaption
human groups can either evolve or expand into
complex societies. For systemic change to
occur, such as expansion of a population,
disequilibrium is required along with multiple
challenges to the environment.[8]
Paul Wilhelm Massing (30 August 1902 – 30
April 1979) was a German sociologist. From
1948 and for many years, Paul Massing taught
political sociology at Rutgers University in New
Jersey. His most important work is Rehearsal for
Destruction: A Study Of Political Anti-Semitism
in Imperial Germany (1949), translated into
German in 1959 this Prehistory of Political Anti-
Semitism was published with a preface of Max
Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno.
Arthur Ruppin (1 March 1876 – 1 January 1943)
was a Zionist thinker and leader. He was also
one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv,
directing Berlin's Bureau for Jewish Statistics
and Demography from 1902 to 1907. In 1926
Ruppin joined the faculty of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and founded the
sociology department. A building there is now
named in his honor. His most celebrated
sociological work is "The Jews In The Modern
World" (1934).
Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol (Romanian
pronunciation: [alekˈsandru diˈmitri.e
kseˈnopol]; March 23, 1847, Iaşi – February 27,
1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian scholar,
economist, philosopher, historian, professor,
sociologist, and author. Among his many major
accomplishments, he is credited with being the
Romanian historian credited with authoring the
first major synthesis of the history of the
Romanian people. In his 1899 French-language
Les Principes fondamentaux de l'histoire ("The
Fundamental Principles of History"), his work
most well-known internationally, he argued for
history being a true science which follows
clearly defined laws and logic, through which
the reasons for historical processes could be
clearly defined.
His six-volume Istoria românilor din Dacia-
Traiană ("The History of the Romanians in
Trajan's Dacia"), completed between 1888 and
1893, strongly asserts that the Romanians are
of predominantly Roman origin - a position
further elaborated by the historian Nicolae
Iorga, one of Xenopol's numerous pupils (see
Origin of the Romanians).
Reinhard Bendix (February 25, 1916 – February
28, 1991) was a German American sociologist.
Born in Berlin, Germany, he briefly belonged to
Neu beginnen and Hashomer Hatzair, groups
that resisted the Nazis. In 1938 he emigrated to
the United States. He received his B.S., M.A.,
and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and
subsequently taught there from 1943 to 1946.
He then taught for a year in the Sociology
Department of the University of Colorado
before moving to the Department of Sociology
at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1947
where he remained for the rest of his career.
Niklas Luhmann (December 8, 1927 –
November 6, 1998) was a German sociologist,
and a prominent thinker in systems theory, who
is increasingly recognized as one of the most im
Systems theory
Luhmann's systems theory focuses on three
topics, which are interconnected in his entire
work.
1. Systems theory as societal theory
2. Communication theory and
3. Evolution theory
portant social theorists of the 20th century.
Luhmann's systems theory is not without its
critics; his definitions of "autopoietic" and
"social system" differ from others. At the same
time his theory is being applied or used
worldwide by sociologists and other scholars:
Alfred Winslow Jones (9 September 1900 – 2
June 1989), a sociologist, author, and financial
journalist, is credited with forming the first
modern hedge fund and is widely regarded as
the father of the hedge fund industry.
In 1984, Jones transformed his fund into a fund
of funds, investing its capital in other hedge
funds with different areas of expertise and
investment styles. He gradually disengaged
himself from his office and gave his time to the
Peace Corps and even tried to establish a
"reverse Peace Corps" in which aid recipients
would send their own volunteers back to the
United States to work with the poor in that
country, as a "hedge" against creating a culture
of inferiority among developing countries.[4][16]
Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8,
1979) was an American sociologist who served
on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927
to 1973.
Parsons developed a general theory for the
study of society called action theory, based on
the methodological principle of voluntarism and
the epistemological principle of analytical
realism. The theory attempted to establish a
balance between two major methodological
traditions: the utilitarian-positivist and
hermeneutic-idealistic traditions. For Parsons,
voluntarism established a third alternative
between these two. More than a theory of
society, Parsons presented a theory of social
evolution and a concrete interpretation of the
"drives" and directions of world history.
Parsons explicitly wrote that the term
"functional" or "structural functionalist" were
inappropriate ways to describe the character of
his theory.
Theda Skocpol (born May 4, 1947) is an
American sociologist and political scientist at
Harvard University. She served from 2005 to
2007 as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts
and Sciences. She is influential in sociology as
an advocate of the historical-institutional and
comparative approaches, and well known in
political science for her "state autonomy
theory". Skocpol has written widely for both
popular and academic audiences.
In 2007, Skocpol was awarded the Johan Skytte
Prize in Political Science, one of the world's
most prestigious prizes in political science.[1] In
2002-3, Skocpol was president of the American
Political Science Association.
Daniel Bell (May 10, 1919 – January 25, 2011)[1]
was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and
professor emeritus at Harvard University, best
known for his contributions to the study of
post-industrialism. He has been described as
"one of the leading American intellectuals of
the postwar era."[2] His three best known works
are The End of Ideology, The Coming of Post-
Industrial Society and The Cultural
Contradictions of Capitalism.[3]
Herbert Marcuse (German: [maʀˈkuːzə]; July 19,
1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American
philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist,
associated with the Frankfurt School of critical
theory. In his written works, he criticized
capitalism, modern technology, historical
materialism and entertainment culture, arguing
that they represent new forms of social
control.[6]
Steve William Fuller (born 12 July 1959) is an
American philosopher-sociologist in the field of
science and technology studies. He has
published in the areas of social epistemology,
academic freedom, and the contentious
subjects of intelligent design and
transhumanism, for which he has received both
praise and derogation at the hands of
prominent critics.
Luce Irigaray (French: [iʁigaʁɛ]; born 3 May
1930) is a Belgian-born French feminist,
philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist,
psychoanalyst, sociologist and cultural theorist.
She is best known for her works Speculum of
the Other Woman (1974) and This Sex Which Is
Not One (1977).
Edgar Morin (French: [mɔʁɛ̃]; born Edgar
Nahoum in Paris on July 8, 1921) is a French
philosopher and sociologist. He is of Judeo-
Spanish (Sefardi) origin. He is known for the
transdisciplinarity of his works.
Manuel Castells (Spanish: Manuel Castells
Oliván, pronounced: [kaˈsteʎs]; born 1942) is a
Spanish sociologist especially associated with
research on the information society,
communication and globalization. The 2000–09
research survey of the Social Sciences Citation
Index ranks him as the world’s fifth most-cited
social science scholar, and the foremost-cited
communication scholar.
He was awarded the 2012 Holberg Prize, for
having "shaped our understanding of the
political dynamics of urban and global
economies in the network society." In 2013 he
was awarded the Balzan Prize for Sociology.
Carol Queen is an American author, editor,
sociologist and sexologist active in the sex-
positive feminism movement. Queen has
written on human sexuality in books such as
Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive
Culture. She has written a sex tutorial,
Exhibitionism for the Shy: Show Off, Dress Up
and Talk Hot, as well as erotica, such as the
novel The Leather Daddy and the Femme.
Queen has produced adult movies, events,
workshops and lectures. Queen was featured as
an instructor and star in both installments of
the Bend Over Boyfriend series about female-to-
male anal sex, or pegging. She has also served
as editor for compilations and anthologies. She
is a sex-positive sex educator in the United
States.
Morris Janowitz (October 22, 1919 – November
7, 1988) was an American sociologist and
professor who made major contributions to
sociological theory, the study of prejudice,
urban issues, and patriotism. He was one of the
founders of military sociology and made major
contributions, along with Samuel P. Huntington,
to the establishment of contemporary civil-
military relations.
Hubert Morse Blalock, Jr. (August 23, 1926 —
February 8, 1991) was an American sociologist
who was internationally known for his work on
statistical research methods.[1][2] He was a
professor of sociology at the University of
Washington,[1] president of the American
Sociological Association[1][3] and a member of
the National Academy of Sciences.[1] According
to the National Academies Press, Blalock Hubert
"played a major role in shaping the field of
sociology during the latter half of the twentieth
century".
FILIPINO SOCIOLOGIST
Walden Bello (born 1945) is a Filipino author,
academic, and political analyst who currently
serves in the Philippine Congress. He is a
professor of sociology and public administration
at the University of the Philippines Diliman, as
well as executive director of Focus on the
Global South.
Ledivina Vidallon Cariño was a Filipino
sociologist and political scientist. She was
University Professor (the highest academic rank
in the University of the Philippines), and later
University Professor Emeritus, at the National
College of Public Administration and
Governance of the University of the Philippines
Diliman (UP-NCPAG). She also once served as
president of the Philippine Sociological Society.
Karina Constantino-David is a former
Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission of
the Philippines. She also served as the
chairperson of the Career Executive Service
Board, a government entity supervising the top
management personnel of the Philippine
government. She presently sits as a member of
the Government Service Insurance System
(GSIS) Board of Trustees. David started working
in 1966 as a Teaching Assistant in the
Department of Sociology of the University of
the Philippines Diliman. She became an
Assistant Professor from 1970 to 1975. In 1986,
she was appointed Undersecretary in the
Department of Social Welfare and
Development. From 1975, David has been a
Professor of Community Development at the
University's College of Social Work and
Community Development.[1]
Randolf "Randy" S. David is a Filipino journalist,
television host and a sociologist. He is a
professor emeritus of sociology at the
University of the Philippines Diliman. He
currently pens a weekly newspaper column for
the Philippine Daily Inquirer, as well as being a
member of the board of advisor of ABS-CBN
Corporation.[1]
Dr. Czarina Aya-ay Saloma-Akpedonu,
sociologist, was named Outstanding Young
Scientist by the National Academy of Science
and Technology (Philippines) in 2007.[1]
Saloma-Akpedonu wrote her first book, Possible
Worlds in Impossible Places: Globality,
Knowledge, Gender, and Information
Technology in the Philippines (Ateneo de Manila
University, 2006), where she explores the
everyday life-worlds of the actors in the
Philippine information technology industry.

She is concurrently the Director of the Institute

of Philippine Culture of the Ateneo de Manila
University.[2] Her professional responsibilities
included being Chair of Ateneo's Department of
Sociology and Anthropology (2005-2010),
President the Philippine Sociological Society
(2006–2007) and Vice President of the Research
Committee on Science and Technology of the
International Sociological Association (2010–
Present).

Paulo Montillon Austria is a Filipino sociologist

who developed spiritual behavior in the field of
sociology.

Dr. Corazon Lamug was a sociology professor

and appointed associate dean and eventually
dean of CAS of University of the Philippines at
Los Banos (UPLB).