Peter Blau

Peter Michael Blau ( born February 7, 1918 in Vienna, † 12 March 2002 in New York City ) was an American sociologist of Austrian origin.

Life

Blue was of Jewish Austrians. Shortly after graduating from high school German troops marched into Vienna. In an attempt to flee from the Nazis across the Czech border, blue was found. He was detained for two months in a prison camp near the border until dismissed him a good-natured German officer there. In 1939 he emigrated to France, where he was taken by the French army to Bordeaux, to process grapes there. From here he went to Le Havre, where he wanted to translate in the United States. In Le Havre he learned some graduates of theological colleges Elmhurst know. Blue itself was always an atheist. In 1942 his parents were murdered in Auschwitz.

After receiving the U.S. citizenship he took as a member of the military from 1943 to 1945 in the war effort in Europe in part, for which he received a military award.

Scientific career

Blue received in Le Havre by graduates of Elmhurst College a scholarship. In New York he met Paul Lehman, the son of Elmhurst College President, his future mentor and surrogate father.

He completed his college studies in May 1942 with a BA from.

In 1952 he received his doctorate at Columbia University in New York City to Ph. D. who taught from 1953 to 1970 at the University of Chicago and then as professor of sociology until his retirement in 1988 again. At Columbia University

His focus was on the sociology of organizations, particularly in the sociology of bureaucracy, however, far from where he worked with his contributions to the theory of exchange in the American and European sociology into it. He also submitted contributions to general sociology, such as for social advancement.

In 1974 he was elected the 65th President of the American Sociological Association.

Writings (selection )

• ( with Richard Scott), Formal Organizations, San Francisco, 1962
• Peter M. Blau, Otis Dudley Duncan: The American Occupational Structure. John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1967, ISBN 978-0471080350 ( English ).
• A Formal Theory of Differentiation in Organizations, 1970
• Inequality and Heterogeneity: A primitive theory of social structure, 1977
• ( with Joseph E. Schwartz) Crosscutting Social Circles: Testing a Macro Structural Theory of Intergroup Relations 1984