James S. Coleman
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James S. Coleman, born May 12, 1926 in Bedford, Indiana, died March 25, 1995 in Chicago, was an American sociologist. He worked on the theory of sociology, sociology of education and public policy and was one of the earliest users of the term "social capital". His Foundations of Social Theory stands as one of the most important sociological contributions of the late 20th century.
Coleman received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1955, where he stood under the influence of Paul Lazarsfeld. He achieved renown with two studies on problem solving: An Introduction to Mathematical Sociology (1964) and Mathematics of Collective Action (1973). He taught at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, at Johns Hopkins University (1959-1973), and then again at UoC, where he directed the National Opinion Research Center. In 1991 Coleman was made president of the American Sociological Association.
Coleman is widely cited in the field of sociology of education. His controversial 1966 article titled "Equality of Educational Opportunity" (often simply called the "Coleman Report") fueled debate about school effects that has continued since. This piece, which suggested that relative to student background and socioeconomic status, schools matter little in determining educational outcomes, has spurred a long tradition of empirical work attempting to prove or disprove this hypothesis.
The 1966 article also said that socially disadvantaged black students profited from schooling in racially-mixed classrooms. As a result, mass bussing systems were set up, ferrying black students to integrated schools. Following up on this, in 1975 Coleman published the results of further research, this time into the effects of school bussing systems intended to bring lower-class black students into higher-class mixed race schools. His conclusion was that white parents moved their children out of such schools in large numbers; this is known as "white flight". His 1966 article had explained that black students would only benefit from integrated schooling if there was a majority of white students in the classroom; the mass bussing system had failed.
Selected works
- The Adolescent Society (1961)
- Equality of Educational Opportunity (1966)
- Youth: Transition to Adulthood (1973)
- High School Achievement (1982)
- Individual Interests and Collective Action (1986)
- Social Theory, Social Research, and a Theory of Action, article in American Journal of Sociology 91: 1309-1335 (1986).
- Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital, article in American Journal of Sociology 94, pp. 95-120 (1988).
External links
- Obituary in the University of Chicago Chronicle (http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/950330/coleman.shtml)
- Article on Coleman in the John Hopkins Magazine, 2000 (http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0400web/18.html)de:James Samuel Coleman