Peter Blau

Peter Michael Blau
Born February 7, 1918
Vienna, Austria
Died March 12, 2002(2002-03-12) (aged 84)
Carrboro, North Carolina
Alma mater Elmhurst College, Columbia University
Era 20th-century
Main interests
 Macrosociology, Organizational Sociology, Social Structure, Stratification, Bureaucracy, Exchange Theory
Notable ideas
 Co-founder of Organizational Sociology (with James Samuel Coleman, Alvin Ward Gouldner, Seymour Martin Lipset, Philip Selznick)

Peter Michael Blau (February 7, 1918 – March 12, 2002) was an American sociologist and theorist. Born in Vienna, Austria, he immigrated to the United States in 1939. He completed his PhD doctoral thesis with Robert Merton at Columbia University in 1952, laying an early theory for the dynamics of bureaucracy. The next year, he was offered a professorship at the University of Chicago, where he taught from 1953 to 1970. He also taught as Pitt Professor at Cambridge University in Great Britain, as a senior fellow at King's College, and as a Distinguished Honorary professor at Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences which he helped to establish. In 1970 he returned to Columbia University, where he was awarded the lifetime position of Professor Emeritus. From 1988 to 2000 he taught as the Robert Broughton Distinguished Research Professor at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in the same department as his wife, Judith Blau, while continuing to commute to New York to meet with graduate students and colleagues.

His sociological specialty was in organizational and social structures. He formulated theories relating to many aspects of social phenomena, including upward mobility, occupational opportunity, and heterogeneity. From each of his theories, he deduced an hypothesis which he would test against large scale empirical research. He was one of the first sociological theorists to use high level statistics to develop sociology as a scientific discipline using macro-level empirical data to gird theory. He also produced theories on how population structures can influence human behavior.

One of Blau's most important contributions to social theory is his work regarding exchange theory, which explains how small-scale social exchange directly relates to social structures at a societal level.

He also was the first to map out the wide variety of social forces, dubbed “Blau Space” by Miller McPherson. This idea was one of the first to take individuals and distribute them along a multidimensional space. Blau-space is still used as a guide by sociologists and has been expanded to include areas of sociology never specifically covered by Blau himself.

In 1974 Blau served as president of the American Sociological Association.

Early life and family background

Peter Blau was born in 1918 in Vienna the year the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell. He was born into a Jewish family as fascist power within Europe grew and Hitler’s influence within Austria became increasingly evident. His influence prohibted free speech, religion, and activities not sanctioned by the government.[1] At the age of seventeen, Blau was convicted of high treason for speaking out against government repression in articles he wrote for an underground newspaper of the Socialist Worker’s Party then was incarcerated. Blau was given a ten year sentence in the federal prison in Vienna.[2] He was then released shortly after his imprisonment when the ban on political activity was lifted due to the National Socialists’ rise to power. When Hitler arrived in Austria on March 13, 1938, Blau attempted to escape to Czechoslovakia. Both Blau and his sister—who was sent to England—managed to escape. The rest of his family, however, decided to stay Austria. Blau’s original attempt to flee proved unsuccessful as he was captured by Nazi border patrol and was subjected to torture for two months. During the two months he was detained, he was tortured, starved, and was forced to eat only lard.[3] Yet, he was once again released and made his way to Prague. When Hitler occupied Czechoslovakia, he escaped again, returning illegally to Vienna to visit one more time with his parents. In the dark of night, Blau hid on a train to cross the border into France. There he turned himself into the Allied forces, who had not yet reversed their policy of putting anyone with a German passport - even the Jews - into labor camps. He spent several weeks as a POW of France crushing grapes in Bordeaux. When the policy about Jews was reversed, he was able to continue his journey to Le Havre, France where he received a refugee scholarship to Elmhurst College in Illinois through a group of missionaries studying at the theological seminary. Blau emigrated to America on the Degrasse ship and landed in New York on January 1, 1939. He attended Elmhurst College, earning his degree in sociology in 1942, and becoming an United States citizen in 1943. Blau returned to Europe 1942 as a member of the United States Army, acting as an interrogator given his skills in the German language. He was awarded the bronze star for his duties, but it was during this time Blau also received word that his family had been killed at Auschwitz.

Later life

After receiving his bachelor's degree from Elmhurst College, Blau continued his education at Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D in 1952. One of Blau’s most memorable and significant contributions to the field of sociology came in 1967. Working together with Otis Dudley Duncan and Andrea Tyree, he co-authored The American Occupational Structure, which provided a meaningful sociological contribution to the study of social stratification, and won the highly touted Sorokin Award from the American Sociological Association in 1968. Blau is also known for his contributions to sociological theory. Exchange and Power in Social Life (1964) was an important contribution to contemporary exchange theory, one of Blau's distinguished theoretical orientations. The aim of this work was, "(to analyze) the processes that govern the associations among men as a prolegomenon of a theory of social structure."[4] In it, Blau makes the effort to take micro-level exchange theory and apply it to social structures at a macro-level. Blau was also very active in the study of structural theory. Blau's 1977 book, "Inequality and Heterogeneity," presents, "A macro sociological theory of social structure"[5] where the foundation of his theory "is a quantitative conception of social structure in terms of the distributions of people among social positions that affect their social relations."[5]

For his achievements, Blau received notable distinctions: election to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.[6] He also served as the president of the American Sociological Association from 1973-1974. He died on March 12, 2002 of acute respiratory distress syndrome. He was eighty-four.

Theory

For Blau, sociological theories were produced through logical deduction. Blau began theoretical studies by making a broad statement or basic assumption regarding the social world, which was then proven by the logical predictions it produced.[7] Blau claimed these statements could not be validated or refuted based on one empirical test. Instead, it was a theory's "logical implications" that could be trusted, more so than an empirical test.[7] Only if continued empirical tests contradicted the theory could the theory be modified, or dropped entirely if a new theory was proposed in its place.[7] Blau's trust in logic and his deductive approach to social theory aligns him closely with the philosophy of positivism and traditional French sociologists, Auguste Comte and Émile Durkheim.

Population Structures

Population structures and their relationship with social interaction was another primary interest within Blau's work. Blau believed that population structure created guidelines for specific human behaviors, especially intergroup relations.[8] Blau created a number of theories explaining aspects of population structure that increased chances of intergroup relations. Blau viewed social structure as being somewhat stable, but he did identify two phenomena that he believed contributed to structural change within a population: social mobility and conflict. Blau thought social mobility, which he described as "any movement within a population by an individual," was beneficial to intergroup relations within a population structure, and theorized various scenarios involving social relations and mobility.[8] Blau also theorized explanations for structural causes of conflict, focusing on population distribution as a cause of conflict separate from individual or political issues.[9] According to Blau, structural conflict is linked to the inequality of status of groups, size of group, social mobility between groups, and the probability of social contact between groups. Blau determined that prevention of conflict within a population structure can be achieved through "multigroup affiliations and intersection in complex societies."[9]

Social Exchange Theory

Social exchange provides an explanation of the interactions and relationships Blau observed while researching. He believed that social exchange could reflect behavior oriented to socially mediated goals. Peter started from the premise that social interaction has value to people, and he explored the forms and sources of this value in order to understand collective outcomes, such as the distribution of power in a society.[10] People engage in social interactions in which we would not think deep about but Blau suggested it is for the same reason why people engage in economic transactions. They need something from other people, the exchange. That then leads to an increase in social exchange in which people attempt to stay out of debt because it gives them an advantage as well as potential power. Although social exchange can be genuine, when the goal for the individual to stay out of debt or to get something in return, it is selfishness. "The tendency to help others is frequently motivated by the expectation that doing so will bring social rewards"[11]

Organizational Theory

Some of Blau’s first major contributions to sociology were in the field of organizations. His first publication, Dynamics of Bureaucracy (1955), prompted a wave of post-Weberian organizational studies. Organizational research consisted in exploring to what extent the received image of the Weberian bureaucracy—an efficient, mechanical system of roles—held up under close scrutiny in the empirical study of social interaction within organizations. Blau, in his research and study, highlighted the ways in which the real life of the organization was structured along informal channels of interaction and socio-emotional exchange. He also discussed how the incipient status systems formed were important to the continued functioning of these organizations as the formal status structure. Hence, much of Blau’s work involving organizations centered on the interplay between formal structure, informal practices, and bureaucratic pressures and how these processes affect organizational change.

Blau’s second major contribution to organizational analysis revolved around the study of determinates of the “bureaucratic components” of organizations. He collected data on 53 Employment Security Agencies in the US and 1,201 local offices. The result of this research was Blau’s (1970) general theory of differentiation in organizations. This piece had an immediate impact in the field of organizations and more importantly American sociology.

Blau derived several generalizations, the most important which are (1) increasing size results in an increase in the number of distinct positions (differentiation) in an organization at a decreasing rate, and (2) as size increases the administrative component (personnel not directly engaged in production but in coordination) decreases.[12] This specific work, however, had a brief influence as organization sociology moved away from monotheistic generalizations about determinants of intra-organizational structure and to the study of organizational environments.

Macrostructural Theory of Social Structure

Probably one of the biggest contributions Blau gave to sociology was his work in Macrostructural Theory. For him, social structure consisted of the networks of social relations that organize patterns of interaction across different social positions. During this time, many people had different definitions for social structure. Blau's definition, however, set him apart from the rest. For Blau, social structure did not consist of natural persons, but instead social positions. This meant that the "parts" of social structure were classes of people such as men, women, rich and poor. Blau believed that the root of social structure can be found whenever an undifferentiated group begins to separate itself along some socially relevant distinction. In Blau’s eyes, one could not speak of social structure without speaking of the differentiation of people. He believes that it is these social distinctions along with some social characteristics (race, religion, age, gender, etc.) which determines who interacts with whom. His theory gave a more structured idea of "homophily" which describes the observation that people are drawn to others like themselves. This is because of structure although, individuals may seem to have other interests but those are structurally produced as well.[13] Blau coined the term “parameter of social structure” to refer to socially relevant positions that people could be classified as. Something could not be considered a parameter if it did not actually affect the social relations of individuals “on the ground.”

In his 1974 Presidential Address: Parameters of Social Structure, Blau discussed two categories of parameters: graduated and nominal. For Blau, modern society was characterized by the fact that they were composed of (1) multiplicity of socially relevant positions and (2) that these positions were connected and sometimes in contradictory ways resulting in cross-cutting social circles. Two positions are contradictory if one interaction increase leads to interaction of another decreasing.

Quotation

One of his most famous quotations is: 'One cannot marry an eskimo, if no eskimo is around,' by which he meant that flourishing societies are pluralistic, egalitarian, and diverse, providing their members with cosmopolitan opportunities. [14]

"An understanding of social structure on the basis of an analysis of the social processes that govern the relations between individuals and groups. The basic question... is how social life becomes organized into increasingly complex structures of associations among men" - the stated "goal" of Peter Blau's work[15]

Legacy

Peter Blau played an important role in shaping the field of modern sociology and is one of the most influential post-war American sociologists. He is sometimes considered the last great "grand theorist" of twentieth century American sociology. While Blau’s work in the differentiation of organizations was short-lived, his style of research was not. He provided an exemplar of how to do research and how to build theory. He proved that general and valuable deductive theory was possible in sociology. Blau eventually paved the way for many young sociologists that then used similar styles of research and deductive theory. In addition to that, he, along with the help of Otis Dudley Duncan, introduced multiple regression and path analysis to the sociological audience. These two methods currently are the go-to methods of quantitative sociology. Blau's foundational theories continue to give momentum for development in social science and his ideas are still widely used.

Works

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Blau, Reva (September 2010). "Peter Michael Blau" (PDF). American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  2. ↑ Blau, Reva (September 2010). "Peter Michael Blau" (PDF). American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  3. ↑ Blau, Reva (September 2010). "Peter Michael Blau" (PDF). American Philosophical Society. American Philosophical Society. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  4. ↑ Peter Blau Exchange and Power in Social Life (1964)
  5. 1 2 Peter Blau,"Inequality and Heterogeneity" (1977)
  6. ↑ Gale, Thomas (2008). "Blau, Peter M. 1918-2002 Bibliography". Encyclopedia. International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 Allan, Kenneth (2006). Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory: Visualizing Social Worlds. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. p. 127.
  8. 1 2 Allan, Kenneth (2006). Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory: Visualizing Social Worlds. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. p. 139.
  9. 1 2 Allan, Kenneth (2006). Contemporary Social and Sociological Theory: Visualizing Social Worlds. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. p. 141.
  10. ↑ Scott, Richard; Calhoun, Craig (2004). "Biographical Memoirs: Volume 85, Peter Michael Blau". The National Academies Press. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
  11. ↑ Blau, Peter (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life. New Brunswick, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-88738-628-2.
  12. ↑ Lizardo, Omar. "Blau, Peter (1918-2002)" (PDF). Retrieved October 6, 2016.
  13. ↑ Scott, Richard; Calhoun, Craig (2004). "Biographical Memoirs: Volume 85, Peter Michael Blau". The National Academies Press. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved October 8, 2016.
  14. ↑ Volker, Beate. "The Comrades' Belief: Intended and Unintended Consequences of Communism for Neighbourhood Relations in the Former GDR" (PDF). Oxford Journals. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
  15. ↑ Ritzer, George (2011). Sociological Theory. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. p. 427.
  16. ↑ "Peter M Blau death record". FindTheBest.com, Inc. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
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