Word: socialism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Disaffection within the Social Relation Department is nothing now, and it has been felt in other areas besides sociology. The department is an amalgamation of sociology and the social branches of psychology and anthropology. It was created in 1946 mainly to facilitate development of the nascent theory of its founders (Talcou Parsons, Gordon Allport, and others): an integrated, general theory of human social behavior. But the theory never developed sufficiently to gain pre-eminence in intellectual circles. The Social Relations Department at Harvard, though it has produced notable scientific developments and some fine social scientists, has remained a unique...
...current situation of sociology is particularly pressing. Sociology's scientific contacts with other social sciences-government, history, and economics-have always been strong, and lately they have become stronger. Sociology has become more institutional, and less psychological, in its orientation. But the Social Relations Department is built mainly on psychology. Because sociology must share the department's resources and facilities with the other disciplines, its development is shunted. Sociologists have been unable to work as closely as they would like with un-psychological (often anti-psychological) social scientists...
FACULTY MEMBERS used to lead a greater percentage of tutorials. Now they can't; there are too many undergraduate concentrators. Also, owing considerably to the new interest of government and business in their professions, many faculty members are chiefly interested in the development of their specialized disciplines within social science. They see themselves as scientists, not teachers...
Consequently, certain people-notably Alex Inkeles a social psychologist whose appointment is in sociology-want sociology to break away from Soc Rel. He and others want a strong department which will be able to administer its own programs, attract its own faculty and graduate students, and work out interdisciplinary arrangements as it sees fit. Lukeles notes that branches of anthropology and psychology have always been autonomous departments, and he claims that the creation of a sociology department "would be, historically, truly a restoration rather than a secession...
...many new administrative problems: whether or how, to further reorganize the department; how to distribute resources and facilities in a different departmental organization; whether, or how, to retain an interdisciplinary undergraduate program; if not. how to redistribute resources for undergraduate education; and others. The number of undergraduate concentrators in Social Relations has more than doubled in the last six years to over 650. Dean Ford's office has been more than cooperative concerning the Soc Rel budget, but the department simply can't cope with that sort of undergraduate growth. No one has yet reckoned with these factors in considering...