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Peter Michael Blau (February 7, 1918–March 12, 2002) was a sociologist.
Born in Vienna, Austria, he emigrated to the United States in 1939. He received his PhD at Columbia University in 1952 before moving on to teach at the University of Chicago from 1953 to 1970. In 1970 he returned to Columbia, where he continued to teach until 1988. His sociological specialty was in organizational and social structures, in particular bureaucracy. He theorized explanations for many social phenomena, including upward mobility, occupational opportunity, heterogeneity, and how population structures can influence human behavior. He also was the first to map out the wide variety of social forces, dubbed “Blau Space” by Miller McPherson. Blau-space is still used as a guide by sociologists and has been expanded to include areas of sociology Blau himself never specifically covered.
In 1974 Blau served as president of the American Sociological Association.
One of his most famous quotes is: 'You can not marry an eskimo when no eskimo is around.'
He died of acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Works
- "A Theory of Social Integration," The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. LXV, No. 6, p. 545, (May 1960)
- Exchange and Power in Social Life, (1964)
- The American Occupational Structure, (1967)
- A Formal Theory of Differentiation in Organizations, (1970)
- Approaches to the Study of Social Structure, (editor). New York: The Free Press A Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. (1975)
- Inequality and Heterogeneity : a primitive theory of social structure , (1977)
- Crosscutting Social Circles: Testing a Macrostructural Theory of Intergroup Relations, with Joseph E. Schwartz (1984)
See also
Blau Exchange An open, non-commercial site for ongoing interviews and conversations inspired by Peter Blau's ideas and writings.