Cooley, Charles Horton

Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929) was a prominent member within the founding generation of American sociologists. In 1907, he became a full professor of sociology at the University of Michigan, and in 1918, he was elected president of the American Sociological Association. It was his aim and achievement to apply the ideas of pragmatism in developing a sociological theory of social action, of social order, and of social change, a project he eventually accomplished with his trilogy: Human Nature and the Social Order (1902), Social Organization (1909), and Social Process (1918). Along with George Herbert Mead, Cooley has influenced the Chicago school of sociology (William I. Thomas, Robert Park) and symbolic interactionism (Herbert Blumer), and he must be regarded as a predecessor of communitarism (Charles Taylor) ...