Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
John L. Scotson was a British sociologist best known for his collaboration with Norbert Elias on the influential study The Established and the Outsiders (1965). At the time of the study, Scotson was a graduate student conducting empirical fieldwork in a working-class community in South England. His keen observations and interviews formed the empirical foundation
Norbert Elias was a German sociologist whose work bridged historical sociology, social theory, and psychology. Born in 1897 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), Elias studied under Alfred Weber and Karl Mannheim before fleeing the Nazi regime and settling in the United Kingdom. His academic career spanned several decades, though much of his influence emerged posthumously.
C. Wright Mills was a prominent American sociologist best known for his critique of power structures and his call for a sociological imagination—the ability to link personal troubles with larger social issues. He challenged both the abstract theorizing of grand sociology and the narrow empiricism of American social science. Mills emphasized the importance of understanding
Erving Goffman was a Canadian-American sociologist who became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century sociology. His work is known for its meticulous empirical detail, sharp analytical insight, and accessible language. Drawing on symbolic interactionism, Goffman developed a micro-sociological perspective that focused on everyday interactions and the presentation of self in social settings. His
Talcott Parsons was one of the most influential American sociologists of the 20th century and a central figure in establishing sociology as an academic discipline in the United States. He is best known for developing structural functionalism, a theoretical framework that views society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability and
Herbert George Mead was a foundational figure in American pragmatism and symbolic interactionism. Although he published little during his lifetime, his posthumously compiled lectures—especially Mind, Self, and Society (1934)—had a profound influence on the development of social psychology and interpretive sociology. Mead’s core contribution lies in his theory of the self, which he saw as