Leading figures in sociology
Jewish recipients of the Leading figures in sociology documented in the ThankJews directory. Jews are about 30% of all recipients — while making up roughly 0.2% of the world's population.
75 documented recipients
Theodor Adorno1903
Frankfurt School philosopher and social theorist, a founder of critical theory
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Philosophy
Raymond Aron1905
French political philosopher and sociologist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Philosophy
Zygmunt Bauman1925
Polish-British sociologist who developed the concept of 'liquid modernity'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Gary Becker1992
Economic Analysis of Human Behavior
Source: Nobel Prize Economics 1992
Howard Becker1928
Developed labeling theory of deviance; author of 'Outsiders'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Daniel Bell1919
Sociologist known for 'The Coming of Post-Industrial Society' and 'The End of Ideology'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Reinhard Bendix1916
Comparative historical sociologist; author of 'Work and Authority in Industry'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Peter Berger1929
Sociologist of knowledge and religion; co-author of 'The Social Construction of Reality'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Basil Bernstein1924
Sociolinguist known for the theory of elaborated and restricted linguistic codes.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Linguistics
Peter Blau1918
Developed social exchange theory and organizational sociology
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Alvin Boskoff
Sociologist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology (LONG LIST)
Werner Cahnman1902
Sociologist of ethnicity and historical sociology
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Lewis Coser1913
Pioneer of conflict theory; author of 'The Functions of Social Conflict'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Emile Durkheim1895
Sociologist, a founding figure of modern sociology as an academic discipline
Source: Britannica
Shmuel Eisenstadt1923
Israeli sociologist of comparative civilizations, modernization and the Axial Age
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Norbert Elias1897
Founder of figurational sociology; author of 'The Civilizing Process'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Amitai Etzioni1929
Founder of communitarian thought and socio-economics
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Lewis Feuer1912
Social theorist; author of 'The Conflict of Generations'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Ronald Freedman1917
Demographer and pioneer of the study of fertility and family planning
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Georges Friedmann1902
French sociologist of work and industrial labor
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Herbert Gans1927
Urban sociologist; author of 'The Urban Villagers' and 'The Levittowners'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Harold Garfinkel1917
Founder of ethnomethodology
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Morris Ginsberg1889
Leading figure of early British academic sociology at the LSE
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Nathan Glazer1923
Sociologist of ethnicity; co-author of 'Beyond the Melting Pot'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Erving Goffman1922
Sociologist who studied the interactional organization of talk and everyday conversation.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Linguistics
Rudolf Goldscheid1870
Austrian sociologist and founder of fiscal sociology
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Calvin Goldscheider1941
Demographer specializing in the sociology and demography of Jewry
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Leo Goodman1928
Statistician and sociologist who advanced categorical data analysis
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Alvin Gouldner1920
Reflexive sociologist; author of 'The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Mark Granovetter1943
Economic sociologist; developed 'The Strength of Weak Ties' theory of social networks
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Ludwig Gumplowicz1838
Early sociologist who developed a theory of group and ethnic conflict
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Georges Gurvitch1894
French sociologist known for the sociology of law and social depth levels
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Louis Guttman1916
Developed the Guttman scale and facet theory in social measurement
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Philip Hauser1909
Demographer and population expert at the University of Chicago
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Robert Hauser1942
Sociologist of social stratification and status attainment
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Will Herberg1901
Sociologist of religion; author of 'Protestant-Catholic-Jew'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Max Horkheimer1895
Director of the Frankfurt School and co-founder of critical theory
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Philosophy
Irving Louis Horowitz1929
Political sociologist and founder of Transaction publishers
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Alex Inkeles1920
Sociologist of modernization and national character; author of 'Becoming Modern'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Marie Jahoda1907
Social psychologist; co-author of the landmark Marienthal study of unemployment
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Morris Janowitz1919
Founder of military sociology; author of 'The Professional Soldier'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Elihu Katz1926
Communications scholar; co-developed the 'two-step flow' theory in 'Personal Influence'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Nathan Keyfitz1913
Pioneer of mathematical demography
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Siegfried Kracauer1889
Cultural sociologist and film theorist; author of 'The Mass Ornament'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Paul Lazarsfeld1901
Founder of modern empirical sociology and quantitative mass-communication research
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Bernard Lazerwitz
Sociologist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology (LONG LIST)
Oscar Lewis1914
Anthropologist who developed the concept of the 'culture of poverty'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Stanley Lieberson1933
Sociologist of ethnicity and methodology; author of 'A Piece of the Pie'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Seymour Martin Lipset1922
Leading political sociologist; author of 'Political Man'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Leo Löwenthal1900
Frankfurt School scholar of the sociology of literature and mass culture
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Karl Mannheim1893
Founder of the sociology of knowledge
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Philosophy
Herbert Marcuse1898
Frankfurt School philosopher, author of 'One-Dimensional Man'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Philosophy
Karl Marx1848
Communist Manifesto
Source: Political philosophy
Marcel Mauss1872
French sociologist and anthropologist; author of 'The Gift'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Robert K. Merton1994
Founder of the sociology of science; coined 'self-fulfilling prophecy' and 'role model'; National Medal of Science (1994)
Source: Jinfo.org — Jewish recipients of the US National Medal of Science
Stanley Milgram1933
Social psychologist famed for the obedience to authority experiments
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Psychology
Franz Oppenheimer1864
Sociologist and economist; author of 'The State' and the conquest theory of the state
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Ithiel de Sola Pool1917
Political scientist; pioneer of communications research and computer modeling in social science
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Political Philosophy & Science
Philip Rieff1922
Sociologist of culture; author of 'The Triumph of the Therapeutic'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
David Riesman1909
Sociologist and author of the influential study of American character 'The Lonely Crowd'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Sophia Robison
Sociologist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology (LONG LIST)
Arnold Rose1918
Sociologist of race relations; collaborator on 'An American Dilemma'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Dominique Schnapper1934
French sociologist of citizenship, nation and integration
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Alfred Schutz1899
Philosopher and sociologist of the phenomenology of meaning and everyday language.
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Linguistics
Richard Sennett
Sociologist
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology (LONG LIST)
Edward Shils1910
Sociologist known for work on tradition, intellectuals, and the 'center and periphery'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Georg Simmel1858
German sociologist and philosopher
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Philosophy
Marshall Sklare1921
Founder of the modern sociological study of American Jewry
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Neil Smelser1930
Sociologist of collective behavior and economic sociology
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Ross Stolzenberg1946
Sociologist specializing in demography, stratification and quantitative methods
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Henri Tajfel1919
Social psychologist who developed social identity theory
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Psychology
Albert Vorspan1924
Writer and leader on Jewish social justice and social action in Reform Judaism
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Immanuel Wallerstein1930
Founder of world-systems theory
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Louis Wirth1897
Pioneer of urban sociology; author of 'Urbanism as a Way of Life'
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology
Kurt Wolff1912
Sociologist of knowledge and leading translator and interpreter of Georg Simmel
Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Sociology