Kai T. Erikson

Last updated
Kai T. Erikson
Born
Kai Theodor Erikson

(1931-02-12) February 12, 1931 (age 92)
Vienna, Austria
Education The Putney School
Alma mater
OccupationSociologist
Parents

Kai Theodor Erikson (born February 12, 1931) [1] is an Austrian-born American sociologist, noted as an authority on the social consequences of catastrophic events. [2] He served as the 76th president of the American Sociological Association. [3]

Contents

Life and career

Erikson was born in Vienna, the son of Joan Erikson (née Serson), a Canadian-born artist, dancer, and writer, and Erik Erikson, a German-born famed psychologist and sociologist. [4] His maternal grandfather was an Episcopalian minister, [5] and Erikson was raised a Protestant. [6] Erikson graduated from The Putney School in Vermont, Reed College in Oregon and earned a PhD at the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in 1959 where he held a joint appointment at the School of Medicine and in the Department of Sociology. There he met his future wife Joanna Slivka, who became Joanna Erikson. [7]

In 1963 he moved to Emory University, and followed that with a move to Yale University in 1966. He now holds the title of William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Sociology and American Studies. [2]

Erikson edited the Yale Review from 1979 to 1989. [2]

Wayward Puritans

Wayward Puritans is the title of his first book (1966) which contains a chapter on sociology of deviance and a chapter on the Massachusetts Bay Colony before three illustrations of deviance within the colony. The first was associated with Anne Hutchinson and Governor Vane and called the Antinomian Controversy. The second was concerned with an intrusion of Quakers, while the third was the Salem witch trials. The book notes the deviation from the City upon a Hill ideal set by John Winthrop.

H. Lawrence Ross described the book as "fascinating and superbly written". The sociological premise explored is from Émile Durkheim: "a function of deviance is to define the normative boundaries of the group." He notes that it is "a remarkable exception to the well-known tendency of sociological research to focus on the here and now." On the statistical analysis Ross comments: "the reasons to expect constancy of deviance over time, such as the limited capacity of the control system, would seem to predict stability of convictions as much as stability of offenders, and in consequence the analysis here seems unsatisfactory.” [8]

Aftermaths of disasters

Erikson subsequently studied a number of disasters in the context of their sociological implications, including the nuclear fallout in the Marshall Islands in 1954; the Buffalo Creek flood in West Virginia in 1972 (resulting in the award-winning 1978 book Everything In Its Path); the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979; the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989; and the genocide in Yugoslavia of 1992 to 1995. [2]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert K. Merton</span> American sociologist (1910–2003)

Robert King Merton was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology, and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology. He served as the 47th president of the American Sociological Association. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor. In 1994 he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contributions to the field and for having founded the sociology of science.

"The City upon a Hill" is a phrase derived from the teaching of salt and light in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. Its use in political rhetoric in United States politics is that of a declaration of American exceptionalism to refer to America acting as a "beacon of hope" for the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erik Erikson</span> German-born American psychoanalyst and essayist

Erik Homburger Erikson was a German-American psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychological development of human beings. He coined the phrase identity crisis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Sociological Association</span> Non-profit organization

The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fifty people, the first president of the association would be Lester Frank Ward. Today, most of its members work in academia, while around 20 percent of them work in government, business, or non-profit organizations.

John Harry Goldthorpe is a British sociologist. He is an emeritus Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford. His main research interests are in the fields of social stratification and mobility, and comparative macro-sociology. He also writes on methodological issues in relation to the integration of empirical, quantitative research and theory with a particular focus on issues of causation.

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, as articulated in the second half of the 20th century by Erik Erikson in collaboration with Joan Erikson, is a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages that a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood.

The Buffalo Creek flood was a disaster that occurred in Logan County, West Virginia on February 26, 1972 when a coal slurry impoundment dam burst, causing significant loss of life and property damage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Sutherland</span>

Edwin Hardin Sutherland was an American sociologist. He is considered one of the most influential criminologists of the 20th century. He was a sociologist of the symbolic interactionist school of thought and is best known for defining white-collar crime and differential association, a general theory of crime and delinquency. Sutherland earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1913. In 1939 Edwin was the first who introduced White Collar Crime.

Erich Goode is an American sociologist specializing in the sociology of deviance. He has written a number of books on the field in general, as well as on specific deviant topics. He was a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lawrence Joseph Henderson</span> American biochemist, philosopher and sociologist

Lawrence Joseph Henderson was an American physiologist, chemist, biologist, philosopher, and sociologist. He became one of the leading biochemists of the early 20th century. His work contributed to the Henderson–Hasselbalch equation, used to calculate pH as a measure of acidity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse R. Pitts</span>

Jesse Richard Pitts (1921–2003), was an American sociologist specializing in deviance and social control, family sociology, sociological theory, French society, and criminology. He is considered one of the leading disciples of Talcott Parsons, dean of American sociologists for much of the 20th century. Pitts is perhaps best known for his contributions to a large textbook on sociology, Theories of Society: Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory, edited by Parsons and published in 1961. He pioneered sociological work on marginality, deviance and conformity. He was interested particularly in criminology and the institutional treatment of mental illness. Raised on both sides of the Atlantic, Pitts felt at home in France as much as in the United States. He created the Franco-American periodical The Tocqueville Review, serving as editor from 1978 to 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austen Riggs Center</span> Psychciatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, US

The Austen Riggs Center is a psychiatric treatment facility in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It was founded by Austen Fox Riggs in 1913 as the Stockbridge Institute for the Study and Treatment of Psychoneuroses before being renamed in honor of Austen Riggs on July 21, 1919.

Peter Conrad is an American medical sociologist who has researched and published on numerous topics including ADHD, the medicalization of deviance, the experience of illness, wellness in the workplace, genetics in the news, and biomedical enhancements.

Lawrence Meir Friedman is an American law professor, historian of American legal history, and author of nonfiction and fiction books. He has been a member of the faculty at Stanford Law School since 1968.

<i>The Fate of the Earth</i> 1982 book by Jonathan Schell

The Fate of the Earth is a 1982 book by Jonathan Schell. Its description of the consequences of nuclear war "forces even the most reluctant person to confront the unthinkable: the destruction of humanity and possibly most life on Earth". The work is regarded as a key document in the nuclear disarmament movement.

Joan Mowat Erikson was well known as the collaborator with her husband, Erik Erikson, and as an author, educator, craftsperson, and dance ethnographer.

In labeling theory, role engulfment refers to how a person's identity becomes based on a role the person assumes, superseding other roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice R. Stein</span> American sociologist (born 1926)

Maurice R. Stein is an American sociologist and innovator in higher education. Stein is co-recipient of the 1987 Robert and Helen Lynd Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed by the American Sociological Association's Community and Urban Sociology Section, while his pedagogical innovations have been highlighted of late by Harvard University's Jeffrey Schnapp in Schnapp's studies in the digital humanities. Retired from Brandeis University since 2002, Stein resides with his spouse, Phyllis Stein, at their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a long-time member of the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement.

Norman Friedman is an American sociologist and the former chairman of the Department of Sociology at California State University, Los Angeles.

References

  1. Blumesberger, Susanne; Doppelhofer, Michael; Mauthe, Gabriele; Nationalbiblioth, (Wien) Österreichische (28 March 2018). Handbuch österreichischer Autorinnen und Autoren jüdischer Herkunft 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert. Saur. ISBN   9783598115455 via Google Books.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Eminent sociologist Kai Erikson to speak". Kenyon College. 2005-01-31. Archived from the original on 2009-09-14. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  3. "Kai T. Erickson". American Sociological Association. 2006-06-13. Archived from the original on 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  4. Cribbs, Bill. "Miscellaneous Barnstable County, MA Obituaries". www.genealogybuff.com.
  5. "Joan Erikson Is Dead at 95; Shaped Thought on Life Cycles". The New York Times. 1997-08-08.
  6. Friedman, Lawrence Jacob (28 March 2018). Identity's Architect: A Biography of Erik H. Erikson. Harvard University Press. ISBN   9780674004375 via Google Books.
  7. Friedman, Lawrence Jacob (2000). Identity's architect: a biography of Erik H. Erikson. Harvard University Press. pp. 256, 331–332. ISBN   978-0-674-00437-5 . Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  8. H. Lawrence Ross (1967) "Review: Wayward Puritans by Erikson, Social Forces 46:462