Donald Black (sociologist)

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Donald Black is University Professor of the Social Sciences at the University of Virginia, who previously taught at Yale Law School and Harvard Law School.

Author of the 1976 book The Behavior of Law, which has received very favorable reviews, and The Social Structure of Right and Wrong, which applies sociological concepts first explored in The Behavior of Law to subjects other than law, such as Right and Wrong, Crime as Social Control, Conflict Management, art, ideas (as an empirical distributed phenomenon), and God. For each of these areas, Black explains and predicts variable aspects such as the frequency of each one (how many arrests? how many ideas? how active a God?) as well as topic-specific variables (is the arrest upward or downward? how important is the idea?)

Black's approach is distinctive both for its epistemological approach (pure sociology) and its theoretical model (social geometry).

Contents

[edit] Biography

Black went to Michigan, and taught at Yale and Princeton. He currently lives outside of Charlottesville, VA.

[edit] Criticism

Among others, Thomas J. Scheff, Professor Emeritus at the University of California-Santa Barbara, has criticized Black's idea that sociologists should ignore characteristics of individuals in explaining social life. In a letter published in Contemporary Sociology he argues theories that give no role to individuals' desires, beliefs and other aspects of their psychology are inadequate. Instead, Scheff argues, the only way to explain social phenomena is "to utilize variables from all relevant disciplines." After all, "it seems senseless to try to explain human conduct exclusively within a single discipline." [1]

He concludes by considering why some people might find "Pure Sociology" appealing:

"If the determination to keep sociology pure does not advance our understanding of the real world, what other function could it serve? In an earlier essay (Scheff 1995) I proposed that allegiance to a discipline, whatever it’s other functions, also helps members to defend against feelings of separation and alienation. The emphasis by most of the contributors to this Symposium on keeping sociology 'pure' and on 'purity,' suggests a further refinement of this idea.

The anthropologist Mary Douglas (1966) has suggested that a focus on purity has a primitive function: defending the status quo in a tribe or other group. The quest for purity, she states, is deeply reactionary: "Purity is the enemy of change, of ambiguity, and compromise (2002, p. 163). Perhaps we need miscegenation between disciplines, sub-disciplines, methods and levels, rather than purity (Scheff 1997). To this end I will propose a public debate on the integration of the social sciences. If the social sciences are to advance, they may need to cooperate, rather than to compete or ignore each other." [2]

[edit] Response to Criticism

Some Blackian sociologists argue that the validity of existing theoretical work is a matter separate from the potential value of the more abstract epistemological approach - firstly because the epistemology could be valued even if it never generates valid ideas,[citation needed] and secondly because the validity of future ideas cannot be ascertained by measuring the validity of current ones. Thus, even if every test of a theory derived from "pure sociology" failed some Blackian sociologists argue it would challenge the epistemology but not extinguish it.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Scheff, Thomas. 2003. Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 32, No. 4. (Jul., 2003), pp. 544.Freely Accessible Version - JSTOR Version, Stable URL
  2. ^ Scheff, Thomas. 2003. Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 32, No. 4. (Jul., 2003), pp. 545.Freely Accessible Version - JSTOR Version, Stable URL

[edit] Further reading

See also, reading|the references section of the Pure Sociology article.

[edit] Works by Black

  • 1971. "The social organization of arrest". Stanford Law Review 23:1087-1111.
  • 1976. The Behavior of Law. New York: Academic Press.
  • 1980. The Manners and Customs of the Police. New York: Academic Press.
  • 1984. "Social control as a dependent variable". Pages 1-36 in Toward a General Theory of Social Control, Volume I: Fundamentals, edited by Donald Black. Orlando: Academic Press.
  • 1989. Sociological Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • 1990. "The elementary forms of conflict management". Pages 43-69 in New Directions in the Study of Justice, Law, and Social Control, prepared by the School of Justice Studies, Arizona State University. New York: Plenum Press.
  • 1993. The Social Structure of Right and Wrong. San Diego: Academic Press.
  • 1998. The Social Structure of Right and Wrong. Revised edition. San Diego: Academic Press.

[edit] Related Sources

Works relying heavily upon Black's theoretical approach, including his epistemology and his explanatory model. See also, references section of Pure Sociology.

  • Baumgartner, M.P. 1988. The Moral Order of the Suburb. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • ________________. 1992. "War and peace in early childhood". Pages 1-38 in Virginia Review of Sociology Volume I, edited by James Tucker. Orlando: Academic Press.
  • ________________. 1999. "Introduction." Pages 1-31 in The Social Organization of Law: 2nd Edition, edited by M.P. Baumgartner. New York: Academic Press.
  • Borg, Marian J. 1992. "Conflict management and the modern world-system". Sociological Forum 7:261-282.
  • Cooney, Mark. 1991. "Law, morality, and conscience: The social control of homicide in modern America". Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Sociology, University of Virginia.
  • ____________. 1997. "From Warre to Tyranny: Lethal Conflict and the State". American Sociological Review 62 (2): 316-338.
  • ____________. 1997b. "The Decline of Elite Homicide." Criminology 35(3): 381-407.
  • ____________. 1998. Warriors and Peacemakers: How Third Parties Shape Violence. New York: New York University Press.
  • Morrill, Calvin. 1995. The Executive Way: Conflict Management in Corporations. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
  • Tucker, James. 1993. "Everyday Forms of Employee Resistance". Sociological Forum 8: 25-45.
  • _____________. 1999. The Therapeutic Corporation. New York: Oxford University Press.

[edit] Critical References

  • Hunt, Alan. 1983. "Behavioral Sociology of Law: A Critique of Donald Black". Journal of law and society 10 (1): 19-46.

[edit] External links