Gouldner, Alvin Ward, 1920-1980

Alvin Ward Gouldner (July 29, 1920 – December 15, 1980) was an American sociologist and social theorist. Trained under Robert K. Merton at Columbia University, he began his career in industrial sociology with two studies of a gypsum plant, Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy (1954) and Wildcat Strike (1954), that became foundational texts in the sociology of organizations. Gouldner’s most widely read work, The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology (1970), argued that American sociology was in crisis and called for a “reflexive sociology” that would subject sociologists’ own assumptions to critical scrutiny. In a subsequent series of books published under the general title “The Dark Side of the Dialectic,” he developed the concept of the “Culture of Critical Discourse” and argued that a “New Class” of intellectuals and technical professionals was emerging as a historically significant force. Gouldner termed this class a “flawed universal class”, contending that it claimed to speak for humanity while pursuing its own interests. He also founded the journal Theory and Society in 1974. Gouldner spent most of his career at Washington University in St. Louis, where he held the Max Weber Research Professorship of Social Theory, with a period at the University of Amsterdam (1972–1976). He died of a heart attack in Madrid at the age of 60.