Pitirim Sorokin

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Pitirim Sorokin (1934).

Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin (Russian: Питирим Александрович Сорокин) (January 21, 1889 – February 11, 1968) was a Russian-American sociologist born in Komi (Finno-Ugric region of Russia). Academic and political activist in Russia, he emigrated from Russia to the United States in 1923. He founded the Department of Sociology at Harvard University. Like C. W. Mills, he was a vocal opponent of Talcott Parsons' theories. He is best known for his contributions to the social cycle theory.

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[edit] Biography

Supporting himself as artisan and clerk, he was able to study at the University of St. Petersburg and to teach sociology and law. Sorokin was imprisoned three times by the czarist regime of Russian Empire; during the Russian Revolution he was a member of Alexander Kerensky's Russian Provisional Government. After the October Revolution he engaged in anti-Communist activities, for which he was condemned to death by the victorious Communist government; the sentence was commuted to exile. He emigrated in 1923 to the United States and was naturalized in 1930. Sorokin was professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota (1924–30) and at Harvard University (1930–55), where he founded the Department of Sociology.

[edit] Works

His writings cover the breadth of sociology; his controversial theories of social process and of the historical typology of cultures are expounded in Social and Cultural Dynamics (4 vol., 1937–41; rev. and abridged ed. 1957) and many other works. He was also interested in social stratification, the history of sociological theory, and altruistic behavior.

Sorokin is author of books such as The crisis of our age and Power and morality, but his magnum opus is Social and Cultural Dynamics (1937-1941). His unorthodox theories contributed to the social cycle theory and inspired (or alienated) many sociologists.

In his Social and Cultural Dynamics he classified societies according to their 'cultural mentality', which can be ideational (reality is spiritual), sensate (reality is material), or idealistic (a synthesis of the two). He suggested that major civilizations evolve through these three in turn: ideational, idealistic, sensate. Each of these phases of cultural development not only seeks to describe the nature of reality, but also stipulates the nature of human needs and goals to be satisfied, the extent to which they should be satisfied, and the methods of satisfaction. Sorokin has interpreted the contemporary Western civilisation as a sensate civilisation dedicated to technological progress and prophesied its fall into decadence and the emergence of a new ideational or idealistic era.

Sorokin's papers are currently held by the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada where they are available for the public. In March 2009 the Sorokin Research Center was established at the facilities of Syktyvkar State University in the Republic of Komi for the purpose of research and publication of archive materials, mainly from the collection at the University of Saskatchewan. The first research project “Selected Correspondence of Pitirim Sorokin: Scientist from Komi on The Service of Humanity” (in Russian) has been drafted and will be in print in the Fall of 2009 in Russia.[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] Publications

  • Social and Cultural Dynamics: A Study of Change in Major Systems of Art, Truth, Ethics, Law and Social Relationships (1957 (reprinted 1970) ed.). Boston: Extending Horizons Books, Porter Sargent Publishers. ISBN 0-87558-029-7. 
  • (with Lunden, W. A.), Power and morality: who shall guard the guardians? Boston, MA: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1959
  • The crisis of our age, Chatam, NY: Oneworld Publications, Ltd, 1992

[edit] On Sorokin

  • Cuzzort, R. P. and King, E. W., Twentieth-Century social thought (5th ed.). New York, NY: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1995
  • Gambescia, C., Invito alla lettura di Sorokin. Rome, Italy: Edizioni Settimo Sigillo, 2002
  • Johnston, B.V (1995). Pitirim A. Sorokin an Intelellectual Biography . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
  • Mills, C. W., The Sociological Imagination. New York, NY: The Oxford University Press, 2000



[edit] References

  1. ^ "Sorokin Research Center (Russia, Komi Republic, Syktyvkar)" (in Russian). Sorokin Research Center. http://www.pitirimsorokin.org. Retrieved 2009-09-11. 

[edit] External links

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