This book is the classic source of empirical information on the patterns of occupational achievement in American society. Based on an unusually comprehensive set of data, it is renowned for its pioneering methods of statistical analysis as well as for its far-reaching conclusions about social stratification and occupational mobility in the United States. The American Occupational Structure received the Sorokin Award of the American Sociological Association in recognition of its significant contribution to the social sciences.

This book originated in an analysis of government bureaucracies. Peter Blau was led to wonder whether corresponding patterns are observable in the administrative structures of other types of organisations. This text examines the institutions of higher education, which Blau believes are the formal organisations that differ most in objectives and performance from government bureaucracies.

The distinguished sociologist Peter Blau has opened up a variety of fields with brilliant contributions, ranging from research on social networks of small groups and quantitative studies of formal organizations to more synoptic investigations of populations and the large scale structures which hold them together. In this capstone to a prolific career, he has brought together these concerns to form a wide ranging theory of population structures and their influence on social life—from opportunities in job choice and social mobility, to organizational participation, and intergroup relations. Blau begins by outlining the influences of population structures on intergroup relations and then examining the implications these influences have on occupational opportunities. He looks at the many groups within which an individual is likely to socialize—family, ethnic group, socioeconomic class—and the distance away from these groups an individual is likely to move. Blau demonstrates how such factors affect social mobility, which, in turn, influences membership and structures several types of organizations. Blau then moves on to interpersonal relationships and analyzes the social exchanges in them that reveal the ultimate effects of ethnic, socioeconomic, and other aspects of population structures. He defines two types of power: influence in direct interpersonal exchange, and large-scale domination (economic or political) of groups without personal contact.

Upon its publication in 1962, this book became one of the founding texts of organizational sociology. Bringing together diverse approaches, it presented a new focus of interest: the formal organization. Blau and Scott raised the level of analysis from attention solely on individual participants and work groups to a broader understanding of organizations as collective actors. In the book, the authors reviewed multiple types of studies—including case studies, experimental research, and surveys—and integrated them to define new central themes. They used their own empirical studies of two social welfare agencies to illustrate the ways in which varying organizational contexts shape work group and participant attitudes and activities. Formal Organizations served to integrate research on both formal and informal systems, authority and leadership, and stressed the importance of links to the wider environment. This reissue, which includes a new introduction by Scott, makes this seminal work accessible to a new generation of scholars and practitioners.

Crosscutting Social Circles describes a theory of groups' relations to each other, and tests the theory in the 125 largest metropolitan areas In the United States. The focus is on the Influence social structure exerts on intergroup relations. Blau and Schwartz show how role relations are influenced by how people are distributed among social positions. Examples are a community's racial composition, division of labor, ethnic heterogeneity, income Inequality, or the extent to which educational differences are related to income differences. Blau and Schwartz test their theory by considering its impact on such structural conditions as intermarriage, an important form of intergroup relations.The authors derive the main principles of previously formulated theories of intergroup relations and present them in simpler and clearer form. They empirically test the power of the theory by analyzing its ability to predict how social structure affects intermarriage in the largest American cities, where three-fifths of the American population live. They selected cities because population distribution of a small neighborhood might be affected by casual associations among neighbors; it is much more sociologically interesting if population distribution also affects mate selection in a city of millions.Unlike most theories that emphasize the implications of such cultural orientations as shared values and common norms, this volume focuses on the significance of various forms of inequality and heterogeneity. As one of the few books that supplies a large-scale empirical test of implications of a theory, Crosscutting Social Circles serves as a model. The new introduction by Peter Blau reviews the origins and impact of the book. It will be of immense value to sociologists, psychologists, and group relations specialists.