Walter Frederick Buckley (April 17, 1921 – January 27, 2006) was an American sociologist, and professor of

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, m ...

. Buckley was among the first to apply concepts from

general systems theory Systems theory is the interdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or human-made. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structu ...

based on the work of Bertalanffy to

Felix Geyer and Hans van der Zouwen (1992), "Sociocybernetics", in: ''Cybernetics and Applied Systems'', C.V. Negoita ed. p.96.

Biography

Born and raised in

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by E ...

, Buckley studied

at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

. In 1958 he received his Ph.D. with the doctoral dissertation ''Sociological theory and social stratification'', in which he outlined a non-functionalist theory of social stratification. Buckley started his academic career early 1960s as Assistant Professor of Sociology at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

in the department of sociology, which was chaired by David Gold PhD. From 1971 to 1985 he was professor of Sociology at the

. In the 1970s he participated in the Uppsala Theory Circle at the

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

in Sweden founded by Tom R. Burns. In 1998 he was awarded the honorary chair of the Socio-Cybernetics Research Committee of the

International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national sociolo ...

. Buckley has been described as a pioneer in

social systems In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. ...

theory that challenged conventional views. In his personal life he appreciated

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

music and played tenor

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

. He died in 2006 in Durham, New Hampshire.

Publications

Books, a selection:Buckley, Walter Frederick 1921-
at worldcat.org * 1959. ''Sociological theory and social stratification.'' Dissertation University of Wisconsin–Madison. * 1967, ''Sociology and Modern Systems Theory''. Prentice Hall * 1968, ''Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist''. Foreword from

Anatol Rapoport Anatol Rapoport ( uk, Анатолій Борисович Рапопо́рт; russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Рапопо́рт; May 22, 1911January 20, 2007) was an American mathematical psychologist. He contributed to genera ...

,Overview
of this book on the ISSS website, retrieved 24.03.2008. * 1969. ''Class and society'' with Kurt Bernd Mayer. New York * 1971. ''A systems study in regional inequality: Norrbotten, a fourth of Sweden''. With Bengt Sandkull. Stockholm, * 1975. ''Multi-level, dialectical social action : an open systems theory perspective''. With Thomas Baumgartner and Tom R. Burns * 1976. ''Power and control : social structures and their transformation'' Edited by Tom R. Burns and Walter Buckley. London : SAGE. * 1982. ''Power, Conflict, and Exchange in Social Life: An Actor-oriented Systems Theory of the Structuring and Dialectics of Social Systems''. With Thomas Baumgartner and P. DeVille. Institute of Sociology, Uppsala. * 1998, ''Society—A Complex Adaptive System : Essays in Social Theory'', Routledge.

References

External links

In Memoriam: Walter F. Buckley, professor of sociology, 1971-1985
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckley, Walter F. 1922 births 2006 deaths American sociologists Cyberneticists American systems scientists University of California, Santa Barbara faculty University of New Hampshire faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni