Alvin Gouldner and the Sociology of Knowledge: Three Significant Problem Shifts*

One thing is certain, a man might feel: the building of this bridge will never be completed, but my life will surely have its end. A man might therefore risk a running leap from the unfinished edge to the shore that he thinks he sees ahead. Perhaps he has seen right and has estimated his own powers correctly. In which event, applause. Perhaps he has badly miscalculated on both counts. In which event, a certain dampness sets in. Maybe he can swim back to safety, even if somewhat less than applauded. In any event, he has found out how far he can see and how well he can jump. Even if he is never heard from again, perhaps those who are still dawdling at the edge will learn something useful (Gouldner, 1973).     

Is a Critical Sociology Possible: Alvin Gouldner and the “Dark Side of the Dialectic”*

Alvin Gouldner's oeuvre is examined in terms of its confrontation with and critical appropriation of both empirical social research and Marxism. Traversing an enormous range of diverse topics-the sociology of knowledge; industrial sociology; problems of bureaucracy and democracy; studies in leadership; the role of intellectuals and ideologies; sociolinguistics; functionalism, Marxism, Stalinism, and anarchism; and studies of Plato, Saint-Simon, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Parsons-Gouldner's work retains a basic thematic focus. This work is neither a harmonious synthesis of these various topics nor does it remain totally consistent with any topic taken individually. Nonetheless there is a thematic continuity underlying the creative tensions and contradictions in his work. This continuity is identified as the classical political and historical mission of social theory; namely, the Enlightenment quest for rational discourse and the establishment of the social conditions for a truly humane society.     

Between family and friends: a longitudinal study of friendship choice

The increasing role for chosen friends is a key element in current debates on individualization and the transformation of intimacy. This paper describes the changes in friendship choices over time and demonstrates how life events subsequently impact on those choices. We primarily distinguish between kin and non-kin nominations of friends and how these may be related to the social and economic turbulence inherent in late modernity. Analyses of data from ten years of the British Household Panel Survey showed that kin nominations still form a significant proportion of all friends but increasingly so with age and over time as people age. Life events, such as divorce or death of a partner, have large effects on the likelihood of changes in friendship choices as did gender, age, marital status and social class. We frame these results in a discussion of the saliency and nature of friendship at stages of the life course and conclude that the case for a general secular shift to choosing non-kin friendships rather than kin-based friendship is not demonstrated.     

Good company: the sociological implications of friendship

Sociologists have paid relatively little attention to friendship, for a variety of reasons. This paper, based on an intensive study of a small group of middle-class, middle-aged English women, describes the basis of their attraction for each other, the activities they pursue together and the norms governing their interaction. Friendship emerges as a source of social integration. Friends are seen to play an important part in the creation and maintenance of social reality. Friendship offers relief from the strains of other role performance and provides a vehicle for the expression of feminine and status attributes. In this connection, attention is drawn to the role of women in the maintenance of the family's social position.     

Inhabited Institutions: Social Interactions and Organizational Forms in Gouldner’s Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy

Organizational sociologists often treat institutions as macro cultural logics, representations, and schemata, with less consideration for how institutions are ”inhabited“ (Scully and Creed, 1997) by people doing things together. As such, this article uses a symbolic interactionist rereading of Gouldner’s classic study Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy as a lever to expand the boundaries of institutionalism to encompass a richer understanding of action, interaction, and meaning. Fifty years after its publication, Gouldner’s study still speaks to us, though in ways we (and he) may not have anticipated five decades ago. The rich field observations in Patterns remind us that institutions such as bureaucracy are inhabited by people and their interactions, and the book provides an opportunity for intellectual renewal. Instead of treating contemporary institutionalism and symbolic interaction as antagonistic, we treat them as complementary components of an “inhabited institutions approach” that focuses on local and extra–local embeddedness, local and extra-local meaning, and a skeptical, inquiring attitude. This approach yields a doubly constructed view: On the one hand, institutions provide the raw materials and guidelines for social interactions (“construct interactions”), and on the other hand, the meanings of institutions are constructed and propelled forward by social interactions. Institutions are not inert categories of meaning; rather they are populated with people whose social interactions suffuse institutions with local force and significance.     

The development of friendship in childhood: A clinical conversation

Our friendships are a way to think about meaning in life. Friendships are like protein, a psychological essential for growth and development. When we see two three-year-olds playing together at the park running, holding hands, laughing, we cannot help but be filled with a sense of joy and warmth We can view making friendships as a developmental process in itself. In this discussion, I will explore the use of toys as a means of making friends. I will also explore the psychological meaning of toys and how they are a developmental precursor to friendship. Two clinical examples will be given in which friendship was the predominant theme in the therapy.The author would like to thank the late Gary Davis for his enthusiasm and friendship. Also: Mary Louise Denardo, Emily Halstead and Marilyn Silin.Lynn Borenstein MSW is on the faculty of the Institute for Clinical Social Work, and the faculty of the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Program, Institute for Psychoanalysis.     

The friendship process: A developmental model of interpersonal attraction

Friendship formation as a social process is described by a developmental model incorporating the variables of proximity, interaction, and similarity. This theoretical model differs from previous approaches by describing the differential impact of proximity and different types of similarity at different stages in the friendship process, and by including two feedback loops. Initially, proximity permits social interaction to occur, and this leads to liking through the process of “mere exposure.” At the same time, a feedback loop involving a selection effect operates: individuals who like one another actively seek more interaction, which in turn leads to more liking. Later in the process, social and attitudinal similarity lead to liking through a psychological balancing effect. The second feedback loop occurs when interaction leads to increased attitude similarity by means of mutual socialization; this increase in attitude similarity then causes more liking, and so forth. Finally, it is postulated that friendship emerges as a result of shared values. Support is given to parts of the model by a longitudinal field study, but further research is needed.     

Beyond and below racial homophily: ERG models of a friendship network documented on Facebook

A notable feature of U.S. social networks is their high degree of racial homogeneity, which is often attributed to racial homophily--the preference for associating with individuals of the same racial background. The authors unpack racial homogeneity using a theoretical framework that distinguishes between various tie formation mechanisms and their effects on the racial composition of networks, exponential random graph modeling that can disentangle these mechanisms empirically, and a rich new data set based on the Facebook pages of a cohort of college students. They first show that racial homogeneity results not only from racial homophily proper but also from homophily among coethnics of the same racial background and from balancing mechanisms such as the tendency to reciprocate friendships or to befriend the friends of friends, which both amplify the homogeneity effects of homophily. Then, they put the importance of racial homophily further into perspective by comparing its effects to those of other mechanisms of tie formation. Balancing, propinquity based on coresidence, and homophily regarding nonracial categories (e.g., students from "elite" backgrounds or those from particular states) all influence the tie formation process more than does racial homophily.