1980s in sociology

1981

• Raymond Boudon's Logic of social action : an introduction to sociological analysis is published.
• Andre Gunder Frank's Crisis in the third world is published.
• Erving Goffman's Forms of Talk is published.
• Jürgen Habermas's The Theory of Communicative Action is published.
• Thomas Humphrey Marshall's The Right of Welfare and Other Essays is published.
• Leslie George Scarman's Brixton disorders 10–12 April 1981 : report of an enquiry is published.
• Alain Touraine's La Voix et le Regard is published.
• Michel Wieviorka establishes the Centre d'Analyses et d'Interventions Sociologique (CADIS)

1982

• Raymond Boudon's and François Bourricaud's Dictionnaire critique de la sociologie is published.
• Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies' The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain is published.
• Colin Crouch's Trade unions: the logic of collective action is published.
• Andre Gunder Frank's Dynamics of the Global Crisis is published.
• Edmund Leach's Social Anthropology is published.
• Doug McAdam's Political Process and the Development of the Black Insurgency 1930-1970 is published.
• Ralph Miliband's Capitalist Democracy in Britain is published.
• Karl Popper's Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics is published.
• Rosalind H. Williams' Dream Worlds is published.
• Erving Goffman serves as president of the American Sociological Association.

Deaths

• November 19: Erving Goffman

1983

• Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities is published.
• Raymond Aron's Clausewitz is published.
• Ernest Gellner's Nations and Nationalism is published.
• Ian Hacking's Representing and Intervening is published.
• Sandra Harding's and Merrill B. Hintikka's (eds.) Discovering Reality is published.
• Sal Restivo's The Social Relations of Physics, Mysticism, and Mathematics is published
• Morris Janowitz's The Reconstruction of Patriotism is published.
• Jean-François Lyotard's The Differend is published.
• Ralph Miliband's Class, Power and State Power is published.
• Jean-Luc Nancy's La communauté désoeuvrée is published.
• Jean-Luc Nancy's L'Impératif catégorique is published.
• Alain Touraine's Solidarity: The Analysis of a Social Movement is published.
• Michael Young's Social scientist as innovator is published.
• Alice S. Rossi serves as president of the ASA.

Deaths

• October 17: Raymond Aron

1984

• Anthony Giddens' The Constitution of Society
• Christopher Lasch's The Minimal Self is published.
• Charles Murray's Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950-1980 is published.
• Michael Piore's & Charles Sabel's Second industrial divide: possibilities for prosperity is published.
• Roy Wallis' The Elementary Forms of the New Religious Life is published.

1985

• James S. Coleman's Becoming Adult in a Changing Society is published.
• Ernest Gellner's The Psychoanalytic Movement is published.
• David Harvey's Consciousness and the Urban Experience is published.
• Michel Maffesoli's Shadow of Dionysus is published.
• Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death is published.
• Jeffrey Weeks' Sexuality and its Discontents is published.
• Viviana Zelizer's Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children is published.

1986

• Jean Baudrillard's America is published.
• Ulrich Beck's Risk Society is published.
• Raymond Boudon's Theories of social change : a critical appraisal is published.
• Fei Xiaotong and others' Small Towns in China: Functions, Problems & Prospects is published.
• Amos Hawley's Human Ecology is published.
• Gilbert Lewis' Concepts of Health and Illness in a Sepik Society is published.
• Michael Mann's Sources of Social Power (volume 1) is published.

1987

• James Coleman's Public and Private High Schools is published.
• Sandra Harding's Feminism and Methodology is published.
• Sandra Harding's and Jean F O'Barr's Sex and Scientific Inquiry is published.
• George Homans' Certainties and Doubts is published.
• Paul Gilroy's There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack is published.
• Scott Lash's and John Urry's The End of organized capitalism is published.
• The European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences gives its first award to Norbert Elias for his Society of Individuals.

1988

• Stanley Aronowitz's Science as Power is published.
• John Bowlby's A Secure Base is published.
• Frances Fox Piven's and Richard Cloward's Why Americans Don't Vote is published.
• Dick Hobbs' Doing the Business is published.
• Michel Maffesoli's The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society is published.
• Andrew W. Metcalfe's For freedom and dignity : historical agency and class structures in the coalfields of NSW is published.
• Serge Moscovici's La machine à faire des dieux is published and wins the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences.
• Tom Schuller's and Michael Young's [ed.] Rhythms of society is published.
• Michel Wieviorka's Society and terrorism is published and wins the Bulzoni Editore Special Award.
• Herbert J. Gans serves as president of the American Sociological Association.

1989

• Zygmunt Bauman's Modernity and the Holocaust is published and wins the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences.
• Thomas Bottomore's and Robert Brym's (ed.) The Capitalist Class is published.
• Raymond Boudon's Analysis of ideology is published.
• Ralph Miliband's Class Struggle in Contemporary Capitalism is published.
• Immanuel Wallerstein's The Modern World-System (all volumes) are published.
• Joan Huber serves as president of the ASA.

Deaths

• May 29: George C. Homans