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Alvin W. Gouldner: Outlaw Sociologist
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11101 |
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BOOK WORLD
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3 / 1986 |
4,313 Words |
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Paul Piccone
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Uneasily located between journalism and bureaucratic administration, much contemporary sociology tends to have a relatively short shelf life. It comes with the pitfalls of both poles, and generally, its products hardly survive the context within which they are produced other than as historical artifacts with only minimal residual documentary value. This is why most professional sociology journals, filled with impeccable collected information and properly written in the predominant disciplinary jargon, suffer from built-in obsolescence and go roughly the way of last week's papers: to collect in dusty dungeons of university libraries rather than to be recycled for their full content. Only the works of a few exceptional scholars tend to transcend this bitter fate and remain as lasting contributions for anyone seeking mastery of the field or attempting to better understand oneself and society.
Professionally Isolated
The contributions of Alvin W. Gouldner, however, are exceptional. His first two books on labor relations and bureaucracies-polished, repackaged drafts of his doctoral dissertation-have long since become sociological classics. His later contributions, on Marxism and the role of the intellectuals, some of which have appeared posthumously, are already providing the main parameters for the crucial issues facing sociology and public discourse for at least the rest of the century: the future of personal freedom and equality.
One of the troublesome fractures of Alvin Gouldner's work, however, is that, although increasingly cited by intellectuals in general, it has not received the kind of attention that it deserves from other sociologists. This predicament has nothing to do with either the books themselves or the changing intellectual climate which, if anything, is growing more receptive for the issues Gouldner raised. Rather, it must be explained primarily in terms of lingering resentment within the profession toward a maverick who, in his search for "truth, beauty, and goodness" never missed a chance to step on the toes of whomever happened to get in his way. As a result, Gouldner was for most of his life professionally isolated: one of the best minds in the Midwest during the last decade of his life never managed to have more than handful of friends with whom to share his ideas. Had it not been for the post office and the telephone company, Gouldner's intellectual life might have been even more isolated.
The root of his problem was not Gouldner's intellect but his personality. Although in every respect a full-fledged member of a generation of New York Jewish intellectuals who came to dominate postwar American cultural life, Gouldner remained throughout his life the brilliant and troublesome outsider. His own accurate self-description as a "ridge-rider," an "outlaw," or an "artist," meant that he felt ill at ease within a profession filled with timid minds imprisoned in their careers and obsessed with mendacities. With the best of his generation of sociologists he both exemplifies the lasting achievements of that generation while scornfully transcending most of its debilitating limitations.
Born the oldest son of a first generation Jewish family (in 1920), Gouldner's upbringing in the Bronx was fairly typical. While always aware of his Jewish heritage, his family pursued the "American dream" and accepted assimilation as natural-according to his younger sister Syd. While the parents spoke at
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