People in Sociology

  • Auguste Comte

    -Coins the term 'sociology'
    -Published theories in a book called "Positive Philosophy"
    -His belief was adopted by European scholars
    -Believed social behavior had to be studied scientificaly
  • Harriet Martineau

    -Popular writer who sold out Charles Dickens
    -Translated "Positive Philosophy"
  • Karl Marx

    -Studied law in Bonn and Berlin
    -Identified several social classes
    -Predicted that at some point there would contain only bourgeoisie and proletariat
    -Class conflict was key to unfolding history
    -Explain the workings of capitalism to hasten its fall through revolution
  • Herbert Spencer

    -Compared society to the human body
    -Theory "Social Darwinism"
    -Believed that Industrial Revolution represented movement of a militaristic society to an industrial one
    -Theory was inspired because of the theory of evolution
  • Booker T. Washington

    -was in slavery
    -educator at Tuskegee Institute
    -believed that African Americans should accept segregation in return for economic gains
  • Emile Durkheim

    -Society exists because of an agreement among society
    -Introduced the use of statistical techniques in his research on suicide
    -Showed human social behavior is explained by social factors
    -Wrote "Suicide: A Study in Sociology"
  • Jane Addams

    -1931 awarded Nobel Peace Prize
    -first sociologist to receive Nobel Peace Prize
    -focused on problems caused by the abusive power on society
    -believed social action will be used to improve society
  • George Herbert Mead

    -taught at University of Chicago
    -developed how our sense of self develp[ed
    -said it developed as we interact with the world
    -his work laid the foundation for other perspectives of interactionism
  • Max Weber

    -Wrote on topics like power religions of the world, kaw, economics... etc
    -Wrote "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism"
    -Humans act on the basis of their own understanding of a situation
  • Robert Ezra Park

    -was an aide to Booker T. Washington
    interested in the social function of newspapers
    -believed sociologists were types of "superreporter" who documented long term trends in sociology
  • W.E.B. Du Bois

    -attacked the problem of racism
    -Published "The Philadelphia Negro"
    -first African American to recieve a diploma from a hgih school in Massachusetts
  • Julian Samora

    -first known Mexican American to earn a doctorate in sociology
    -focused on civil rights and discrimination, poverty, public health, and movement of people along the Mexican American border
    -founded the Mexican Graduate Studies Program
    -headed the Mexican Border Studies Project