James S. Coleman was one of a distinguished generation of sociology students who passed through the Columbia Sociology Department in the 1940s and `50s. This book critically debates his work and his contribution to society and the social sciences more generally. It consists of 18 major papers by 20 authors from six countries on a range of themes. The volume is framed by an extended editorial introduction reflecting on the five- year exchange of correspondence between James Coleman and the editor, together with two of Coleman's own works.

James S. Coleman was one of a distinguished generation of sociology students who passed through the Columbia Sociology Department in the 1940s and `50s. This book critically debates his work and his contribution to society and the social sciences more generally. It consists of 18 major papers by 20 authors from six countries on a range of themes. The volume is framed by an extended editorial introduction reflecting on the five- year exchange of correspondence between James Coleman and the editor, together with two of Coleman's own works.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1958.

Non-Aboriginal material.

Over the past hundred years changes in the structure of modern society have created an increasing asymmetry between individual persons and the corporate bodies with which they daily interact. The rise of the e new 'corporate actors"-government, business corporations, trade unions, associations-and our coexistence with them as natural persons pose problems never before confronted. James Coleman explores the implication of our modern asymmetric society for decision involving rights and risks, child rearing and the flow of information. He examines how corporate actors come to gain their right from natural persons; how they come to have life breathed into them; how their actions have serious economic and physical consequences for natural persons; and how reallocation of rights can be used to restrain their action . Coleman concludes hi provocative essays with a look into the future. The modern corporate actor allow natural per on freedom unknown to our forefather but has also placed many of us in impersonal, often inhuman bureaucracies. Is the corporate actor the la t such social invention? Or i there the possibility of a more attractive future, following still further social and corporate evolution?