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PREFACE

This special issue of Theory & Society is presented with affectionate regard

for the memory of its founder, Alvin Ward Gouldner . It seeks less to

memorial ize him than to reflect on his life and work in ways that may instruct

and st imulate this and future generations of social theorists.

Gou ldner was bri l l iant at setting agendas for his own and others ' work. Thus

it is fitting that the agenda for this special issue be character ized by~ hts"own

words:

To critique a theory is a very active act; engaging the theory in dialogue, it inevitably interweaves commentary with exegesis, paying scrupulous attention to what the theorist's text says, while at the same time recognizing that the meaning of any text (as of any life) is never limited to its author's self-understanding. It must be interpreted, never merely recited. A theory contains a message some part of which is surely the author's and known to him, but another part is only glimpsed and is opaque even to him. (The Two Marxisms, 9)

The essays and recollections published here are Gouldner ian in the sense that

they comment as much as they interpret. They search for what was opaque to

him, as much as they interpret what he unders tood very well. They are

intended, therefore, to propose the terms by which debate can move beyond

Gouldner , even while apprecia t ing his many and compel l ing contr ibutions.

Accordingly, the essays by Mar t in Jay, Ivan Szelenyi, Nil Disco, Theda

Skocpol , Michael Burawoy, and Lemert and Paul Piccone subject the most

prominent aspects of Gouldner ' s work to analysis and criticism. A second

group of essays are reminiscences. Each of these was originally presented at

one or another of the many public occasions where A1 was remembered by

friends and colleagues. The contr ibut ions by Lewis Coser, Maurice Stein,

and Rod Aya are revisions of presentat ions on the theme "Remember ing

Alvin Gouldner : Theory as Act ion" at the Society for the S tudy of Social

Problems in Toronto , 23 August 1981. The note by Dennis Wrong develops

remarks he made from the floor during the Special Seminar, "Alvin W.

Gouldner : A Crit ical Appra i sa l of His Contr ibut ions ," on 26 August 1981 at

the meetings of the Amer ican Sociological Associa t ion in Toronto . This was

the same session at which earl ier forms of the papers by Jay, Szelenyi,

Skocpol , and Lemert and Piccone were presented. Rober t K. Merton 's

"Alvin W. Gouldner : Genesis and Growth of a Fr iendship" is a greatly

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expanded version of his moving presentation on 22 March 1981 to a special memorial session at the meetings of the Eastern Sociological Society in New

York City.

No issue of this sort would be complete without some word from A1 himself. The long essay, "Marx's Last Battle: Bakunin and the First International," is a shortened version of chapter 5 of his posthumous book, Against Fragmen- tation: The Origins of Marxism and the Sociology of Intellectuals, to be published by Oxford University Press in 1983. Gouldner chose sections of this chapter for the lecture at Columbia University shortly before he died. This was his last return to the city and the university which had shaped his life and work, and these were among the final public words he delivered. Thus, though Gouldner will still have more to say in the posthumous publications of work left at the time of his death, it is entirely appropriate that this special issue should include these written traces of his voice. Even now, nearly two

years later, those who had been close to him recall the remarkable range of that voice, from gentle persuasion to powerful confrontation. In these vocal extremes, and the rich nuances between, A1 urged others, as he did himself, to move on, in thought as in life.

There is an ongoing and irreducible tension between the passion with which we can

surrender ourselves to our social commitments and the fact that death can, at any moment ,

remove us totally and eternally f rom these same involvements . . . . We must be involved,

then, because a "sad necessity" constrains us; but we may be involved gladly, to the extent

that we struggle against an inhumane existence and that, in this struggle, we achieve a sense

of our own powers and worth, and aid others to do the same. The very ephemeral i ty of things

makes it more, not less imperat ive to wage a struggle to fulfill the l imited existence that men

have. (The Coming Crisis, 509)

C. C. L.

Theory and Society 11 (1982) 731-732 Elsevier Scientific Publ ishing Company, Amste rdam Printed in The Netherlands