Robert K. Merton's Extension of Simmel's Ubersehbar

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2517618
AutoresGary D Jaworski (0000-0003-0337-4545, autor de correspondencia)
Año1990
Volumen8
Número1
Páginas99
Fecha de publicación1990-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSociological Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0735-2751 • E-ISSN: 1467-9558
EditorialJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/202197
OpenAlexW2313526051
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas11

It has been over a decade since the publication of the important study, Influence on American Sociology, by Donald N. Levine, Ellwood B. Carter and Eleanor Miller Gorman (1976). In the intervening years, the project of understanding the reception of Georg Simmel's thought by American sociologists has not progressed very far. Little has been accomplished beyond clarification of the role Simmel's writings played in the early work of Talcott Parsons (Levine 1980, 1985; Jaworski 1989a). In contrast, studies of Simmel's place in and influence on European social thought continue unabated (Gephardt 1982; Jaworski 1983; Levine 1985; Frisby 1986; Liebersohn 1988; Levine 1989). My own recent work has sought to contribute to correcting this imbalance by examining Simmel's reception by American functionalist sociologists in the middle part of this century (Jaworski 1989b). This paper reports on one result of that larger research project: an analysis of Robert K. Merton's appropriation of Simmel's term ubersehbar, or surveyable.' While Merton was familiar with Simmel's writings since at least his years at Harvard (Merton 1980, p. 69; 1983, p. 124), he did not draw on Simmel's work in a sustained way until the mid-1950s. It was an opportune time to revisit Simmel. Kurt Wolff had recently completed his English translation of selections from Simmel's

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