ABSTRACT
The modern sociologist is generally uncomfortable as an adviser to policy-makers. Sociology and social policy as academic fields are relatively uneasy bedfellows. In Britain the two subjects are institutionalized in most universities in separate departments, of sociology on the one hand and social policy and administration on the other. Much of the British empirical policy oriented social research carried out in independent institutes, government and market research firms is untouched by the influence of sociological ideas, and many academic sociologists are indifferent to such research, preferring to pursue their own more theoretical and disciplinary concerns. In the United States the links are somewhat closer in some cases. Leading sociologists, of whom James Coleman was a prime example, have undertaken major studies with national policy relevance, and the discipline of sociology is characterized by greater intellectual rigour and methodological sophistication. Even in the United States, however, the pursuit of policy research is a minority activity among sociologists. It is, therefore, of some interest to understand how and why such an energetic and encyclopedic sociologist as James S.Coleman became involved as a national policy actor.
