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Departmental Demography and Reputational Success: The Fall and Rise of Top Sociology Departments 1950–1980

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Abstract

Between 1950 and 1980 surveys of academic sociologists revealed a major shift in the relative ratings of the top six Sociology departments. Wisconsin rose from a distant sixth to being rated first or second. Harvard and Columbia dropped from first and second the rankings to as low as sixth seventh. Underlying these trajectories were a variety of historical changes affecting academia and Sociology, particularly in the 1960s. Using complete yearly listings of the faculties of these six top departments I trace the demographic changes that appear to have been instrumental in producing the movement in ratings. In particular, the radical growth and youth of Wisconsin, and the aging of Harvard and Columbia seem to have played an important role.

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Notes

  1. Adding more departments would have been quite costly for an unfunded project. For five of the departments I had to code catalogs held in their libraries. This required travel to four of them, for two I visited multiple times (I was at Wisconsin). Data for Berkeley was graciously provided by Michael Burawoy to whom I am grateful.

  2. Lowess smoothing was used in all cases.

  3. Because of smoothing, numerical values cited here and below may on occasion appear to differ slightly from those in the relevant figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, New York University, 295 Lafayette St., New York City, NY, 10012-9065, USA

    Gerald Marwell

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  1. Gerald Marwell
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Correspondence to Gerald Marwell.

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I would like to thank James Younker, in particular for his assistance with graphics and statistics, and also with general advice. Helen Rogers also assisted with some of the data collection.

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Marwell, G. Departmental Demography and Reputational Success: The Fall and Rise of Top Sociology Departments 1950–1980. Am Soc 43, 294–309 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-012-9162-5

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