ABSTRACT
One of the least known of Bell’s sociological interests is in the structure and functions of education, especially of higher education. As Chapter 6 shows, he eventually reveals this interest almost as a passionate commitment in the ‘post-industrial society’, where his belief in the virtues and possibilities of the university leads him perhaps to overstress its capacity to determine the future shape of society. However, that interest had developed rather earlier. In 1963 the Dean of Columbia College,[1] David Truman, asked him to form ‘a committee of one’ to spend a year reviewing the undergraduate curriculum. The review was subsequently published as a book (RGE). This truly was an excursion into the field because Bell probably never intended that education was to be a centrepiece of his sociological contribution.
