Behavior: The New Sociology

THE public image of the sociologist —if there is a public image—is that of a fusty pedant who writes books that nobody understands. He is esoteric, obfuscatory, exclusive and elusive. The stereotype is not too far from reality. There are such men, and they preside jealously over an academic fiefdom whose efforts to be recognized as a science are barely a century old.

But the image is no longer adequate. Sociology is changing, perhaps more rapidly than any other discipline. The field is generating a highly visible, adventurous and activist new type of scholar...