''Social Theory and Social Structure'' (''STSS'') was a landmark publication 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 ...

Robert K. Merton Robert King Merton (born Meyer Robert Schkolnick; July 4, 1910 – February 23, 2003) was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology, and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology. He served as th ...

. It has been translated into close to 20 languages and is one of the most frequently cited texts in

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

s. It was first published in 1949, although revised editions of 1957 and 1968 are often cited. In 1998 the

International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national sociolo ...

listed this work as the third most important sociological book of the 20th century. The book introduced many important concepts in sociology, like:

manifest and latent functions and dysfunctions Manifest may refer to: Computing * Manifest file, a metadata file that enumerates files in a program or package * Manifest (CLI), a metadata text file for CLI assemblies Events * Manifest (convention), a defunct anime festival in Melbourne, Aus ...

obliteration by incorporation In sociology of science, obliteration by incorporation (OBI) occurs when at some stage in the history of science, development of a science, certain ideas become so universally accepted and commonly used that their contributors are no longer cita ...

reference group In the social sciences, social groups can be categorized based on the various group dynamics that define social organization.Boundless team.Types of Social Groups" ''Social Groups and Organization'' Open_educational_resources">OER_course.html" ...

self-fulfilling prophecy A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true at least in part as a result of a person's or group of persons' belief or expectation that said prediction would come true. This suggests that people's beliefs influence their actions. ...

, middle-range theory and others.Merton, 1980

Notes

References

* ::Also available as:
Extract.
* Robert K. Merton
This Week’s Citation Classic: Merton R K. ''Social Theory and Social Structure''. New York: Free Press, 1949

Current Contents ''Current Contents'' is a rapid alerting service database from Clarivate Analytics, formerly the Institute for Scientific Information and Thomson Reuters. It is published online and in several different printed subject sections. History ''Cur ...

, (21): 12-12 1980

External links

Extracts
1949 non-fiction books Sociology books Robert K. Merton {{sociology-book-stub

Notes

References

Further reading

External links