This new printing is not a newly revised edition, only an enlarged one. The revised edition of 1957 remains intact except that its short introduction has been greatly expanded to appear here as Chapters I and II. The only other changes are technical and minor ones: the correction of typographical errors and amended indexes of subjects and names.
The book charts where the term went, with whom it resided, and how it fared. We cross oceans and academic specialties and meet those people, both famous and now obscure, who have used and abused serendipity. We encounter a linguistic sage, walk down the illustrious halls of the Harvard Medical School, attend the (serendipitous) birth of penicillin, and meet someone who "manages serendipity" for the U.S. Navy."--Jacket.
Originally published by Abt Books in 1982, this three-part collection of essays taps the seminal thinking of Robert Merton, one of America's foremost sociologists, a social theorist whose work has long had what are described as 'potentials of relevance' for diverse domains of practice. This book examines the interplay between social research and social policy with a focus on the practicing professions - medicine and its allied disciplines, the law, social services, and the clergy. Aimed at members of the practicing professions, sociologists, economists and makers of policy.
Containing the most systematic statement of the theoretical foundations and framework of functional sociology, the essays included in this edition provide an authoritative approach to the functional analysis of social structures. Featuring two new chapters that form an introduction to the three essays publishing in part one of Social Theory and Social Structure, Robert K. Merton reflects on some of the most important thinking in contemporary sociology. On Theoretical Sociology presents a clear and precise overview of basic concepts and serves as an introduction to the unique intellectual achievements of one of America’s foremost scholars.
The use of quotations in scientific writings often fails to capture the force of formulations that made the quotations memorable. In this reference work, the date and source of each quotation serve to help place them in their larger contexts, making it useful in examining the discipline's history.
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