Aage Bottger Sørensen was born on May 13, 1941, in

Silkeborg Silkeborg () is a Danish town with a population of 49,747 (1 January 2022).Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, United States. In 1967, Sørensen was the first recipient of a master's degree in

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

. He went on to

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

where he earned a Ph.D. in Social Relations in 1971. From 1971 to 1984, Professor Sørensen taught at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, serving as department chair in Sociology from 1979 to 1982. He was appointed to the faculty at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1984. As chair of the Sociology Department from 1984 until 1992, he led a substantial renewal of its faculty and programs. From 1994 until his injury, he was chair of Harvard's Joint Doctoral Program in Organizational Behavior. Sorensen's main contribution involved theories of how social and economic inequality reflects the unequal distribution of opportunities and social resources. His work offered a sociological alternative to some economic theories that see inequality as a result of differences in training and education. Instead, he argued that the benefits of education and training depended on whether jobs were available on a freely competitive basis or whether access to them was restricted in various ways. Persistent inequalities, he argued, occur when individuals and groups are able to limit access to jobs, education and other opportunities. Sorensen died in Boston, having been in poor health since February 2000, when he was injured in a fall on ice near his home. He was survived by his wife Annemette, director of the Henry A. Murray Research Center at the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University—also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute—is a part of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts, a ...

, his son, Jesper, and three grandchildren, Nikolaj, Benjamin, and Chloe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorensen, Aage B. 1941 births 2001 deaths University of Copenhagen alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Harvard University faculty American sociologists People from Silkeborg