On Self and Social Organization

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, 1998 M09 15 - 268 pages
It is almost impossible now to imagine the prestigious position Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929) held within the founding generation of American sociologists. His seminal work on human communication, social organization, and public opinion stimulated and guided much of early American sociological thought.

Cooley's work relating self and community is now more relevant than ever to the problems of understanding and directing modern democratic societies. Cooley applied the ideas of pragmatism to developing a systematic way of approaching social action, social change, and social order; he used these interrelated theories to analyze the social problems and cultural crises of the age. According to Cooley, social change is a fragile, interactive process that, due to constantly arising problems of action, requires ongoing scrutiny by the public. This collection of Cooley's best work is an important contribution not only to the history of ideas—especially to the origin of modern sociological theory— but also to the current public debate on civil society, community, and democracy.

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On Self and Social Organization
Charles Horton Cooley
Limited preview - 1998

About the author (1998)

Charles H. Cooley, an American sociologist, was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he spent most of his life. He did little empirical research, but his writings on the individual and the group, particularly on how the sense of self develops through social interaction (the "looking-glass self," he called it), had an enormous influence on all subsequent social psychology. Cooley was an early (1897) critic of Sir Francis Galton's notions about the biological inheritance of genius. His work, which is considered interactionist in its perspective, was influenced by the work of William James. Cooley contended that people gain an impression of themselves only by participating in society. Their perceptions of others' reactions to the "self" presented in such interactions guide individuals in developing and modifying their personalities.

Bibliographic information

TitleOn Self and Social Organization
Heritage of Sociology Series
AuthorCharles Horton Cooley
EditorHans-Joachim Schubert
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press, 1998
ISBN0226115097, 9780226115092
Length268 pages
  
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