Reforming Sociology

In the January 2008 issue of Contemporary Sociology, Theodore Gerber described On Sociology, Second Edition by John Goldthorpe as “useful, erudite, and occasionally provocative.” Goldthorpe, one of the leading minds in the field of sociology and one of the architects of rational action theory (RAT), “finds sociology in a troubling state of disarray,” primarily due to a disconnect between research and theory.

This expanded and updated edition of On Sociology argues for a more empirically rigorous approach to sociology and illustrates the dangers of the pluralism that currently rules within sociology: Goldthorpe hopes that RAT will “serve not as a basis of exclusion but rather as an exemplar of shared standards, in relation to which methodological discussion and debate can be carried on expressive of a genuine pluralism rather than of a merely convenient, ‘anything goes’ counterfeit.”

In his review, Gerber discusses the limits of Goldthorpe’s proposal, pointing to the difficulty to establishing empirical regularities when doing sociological research. This critique should spark exactly the serious debate that Goldthorpe would like to see among sociologists.