Alvin Gouldner's Challenge to Sociology and Marxism

Abstract

Aligned with the tradition of Western Marxism, the work of Alvin Gouldner animates a concern with the political implications of social scientific research. The Western Marxian theme of theory and praxis finds its fullest elaboration in his most recent work. This same theme also provides the theoretical impetus to Gouldner's early industrial organization studies—Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy and Wildcat Strike. Vital to Gouldner's work is the notion that sociology must concern itself not only with what is but also with what human society might be. Gouldner's message is clear: The project of a critical social science cannot stop at mere “negativity.” Rather, it must incorporate the insights of empirical sociology. An examination of his earliest work on organizations and bureaucracy shows that Gouldner has superbly woven these two traditions together and significantly advanced the progress toward developing an adequate critical sociology. In order to demonstrate Gouldner's intellectual lineage with Western Marxism, some translation is necessary. One of the goals of this analysis is to show that the tradition of empirical social science is translatable into the dialectical tradition of social analysis. Gouldner's empirical studies share the same “cognitive interests”—although guided by a different style and method of investigation— with Western Marxism. These insights are offered in his empirical analyses of the recurrent dilemmas of power, leadership, organization, and the fate of democratic aspirations in the modern world. Gouldner's work stands as a significant attempt by an American sociologist to rethink the central issues confronting sociology and Marxism.