James S. Coleman
The University of Chicago
May 12, 1926 - March 25, 1995
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Scientific Discipline: Social and Political Sciences Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1972)
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Sociologist James S. Coleman made major contributions to the areas of mathematical sociology, the sociology of education, and to sociological theory—particularly in the area of rational choice. In 1964, Coleman published Introduction to Mathematical Sociology, a pioneering attempt to create testable mathematical formulas to analyze social behavior. This work would serve as the foundation of his later research in the area of rational choice, especially his 1980 paper, Foundations of Social Theory, which applied rational choice theory to the explanation of human behavior and argued for more empirical and rigorous sociological theory. Coleman was most famous for his often controversial work in the area of education. His Equality of Educational Opportunity (later known as the “Coleman Report”) examined educational achievement across white, black, Asian, Puerto Rican, and Native American children and concluded that home and social environments were the most important predictors of educational success with segregation and resource allotment playing lesser roles. The report also suggested that disadvantaged students did better in racially-mixed classrooms. The Coleman Report became one of the most referenced papers in debates about education during the Civil Rights Movement, and was a significant force in the development of school busing programs in the 1960s and 1970s.
Coleman received his B.S. degree from Purdue University in 1949 and his Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University in 1955. While earning his doctorate, he served as a research associate for Columbia’s Bureau of Applied Social Research. In 1956, he became an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago. After three years, he left to accept a position as an associate professor for the Department of Social Relations at Johns Hopkins University. He returned to the University of Chicago in 1973 as a professor of sociology and a researcher at the National Opinion Research Center. Coleman was a member of the American Philosophical Society (1970), the President’s Science Advisory Committee (1970-1973), and most notably, the American Sociological Association where he served as president from 1991 to 1992. He was also the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the John Dewey Society Award for Distinguished Service to Education in 1969 and the Nicholas Murray Butler Medal in Silver from Columbia University in 1970.
