Copyright 1962 and 1963, Hans L. Zetterberg.Address given at the meeting of The Gothenburg Sociological Association, Gothenburg, Sweden, March 25, 1963. Parts of this presentation have appeared in my book Social Theory and Social Practice (New York: The Bedminster Press, 1962) and are used here with permission. An earliner version of this paper was presented to the meeting of the American Sociological Association in August, 1962 in Washington D. C.
2.
The near-mania of American sociology to change its technical vocabulary every decade must be perhaps understood as a desire to keep professional conversations different from ordinary ones. I cannot see much scientific merit in this terminological frenzy.
3.
Nevertheless few American sociology teachers seem to be aware that their teaching of, say, Parsons and Merton - functional theory - rather than, say, Dahrendorf and Bendix - conflict theory - implies a selection of an image of society perhaps as one-sided as Social Darwinism. A plea to be open-minded must go out to all who teach sociology to make sure that as wide a spectrum as possible of sociological ideas becomes available to the growing generation. If the article of faith about the practical consequences of knowing sociological ideas is accepted then a particular burden falls also upon the publishers and editors who select the sociological textbooks for mass education. There must be place also for books that do not follow the mainstream, a supply of off-beat works should be available as an alternative to the mass-edition textbooks. Their small editions will make them more expensive, but American mass-education in sociology would look less worrisome if they were around.
4.
For an excellent discussion of social scientists as critics of society, see Theodor Geiger, Intelligensen , Wahlström and Widstrand, Stockholm, 1944 , esp. pp. 100-107.
5.
The old definition of a professor as "a person with a different opinion" contains considerable truth. It is possible to line up sociologists on all sides of any complex issue. Even when research findings point overwhelmingly in one direction-for example, in the question of the relative abilities of Negroes and whites - there will be one sociologist, if you have a large enough pool to draw from who will stand up and testify against the mainstream of thought in his profession. This deviant expert greatly undercuts the impact of the majority. This leads to the curious paradox that in countries with fewer sociological experts, sociology will be more influential than in a country with many sociologists. The few Scandinavian sociologists, for example, have probably more influence in their setting than the many American sociologists have in theirs.
6.
Hans L. Zetterberg , On Theory and Verification in Sociology, Second, revised edition (Totowa, New Jersey, The Bedminster Press, 1963), p. 87.
7.
For a parallel presentation from applied economics, see Albert O. Hirschman and Charles E. Lindblom , "Economic Development, Research and Development, Policy Making: Some Converging Views", Behavioral Science , vol. 7 (1962), pp. 211-222.
