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title: "Mathematical sociology"
chunk: 5/5
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_sociology"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:35:37.275238+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
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== Awards in mathematical sociology ==
The Mathematical Sociology section of The American Sociological Association in 2002 initiated awards for contributions to the field, including The James S. Coleman Distinguished Career Achievement Award. (Coleman had died in 1995 before the section had been established.)  Given every other year, the awardees include some of those just listed in terms of their career-long research programs:

2022: Guillermina Jasso, New York University
2020: Noah Friedkin, University of California, Santa Barbara
2018: Ronald Breiger, University of Arizona
2017: Lynn Smith-Lovin, Duke University.
2014: Philip Bonacich, University of California, Los Angeles.
2012: John Skvoretz, University of South Florida.
2010: David R. Heise, Indiana University.
2008: Scott Boorman, Yale University.
2006: Linton Freeman, University of California, Irvine.
2004: Thomas Fararo, University of Pittsburgh.
2002: Harrison White, Columbia University.
The section's other categories of awards and their recipients are listed at ASA Section on Mathematical Sociology

== Texts and journals ==
Mathematical sociology textbooks cover a variety of models, usually explaining the required mathematical background before discussing important work in the literature (Fararo 1973, Leik and Meeker 1975, Bonacich and Lu 2012). An earlier text by Otomar Bartos (1967) is still of relevance. Of wider scope and mathematical sophistication is the text by Rapoport (1983).  A very reader-friendly and imaginative introduction to explanatory thinking leading to models is Lave and March (1975, reprinted 1993). The Journal of Mathematical Sociology (started in 1971) has been open to papers covering a broad spectrum of topics employing a variety of types of mathematics, especially through frequent special issues. Other journals in sociology who publish papers with substantial use of mathematics are Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Journal of social structure, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Articles in Social Networks, a journal devoted to social structural analysis, very often employ mathematical models and related structural data analyses.  In addition – importantly indicating the penetration of mathematical model building into sociological research – the major comprehensive journals in sociology, especially The American Journal of Sociology and The American Sociological Review, regularly publish articles featuring mathematical formulations.

== See also ==
Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, based on a massive expansion of the premise
Positivism
Statistics
Computational sociology
Game theory
Thomas Schelling
Peter Blau
Harrison White
Nicolas Rashevsky
Society for Mathematical Biology
Interpersonal ties
James Samuel Coleman
James D. Montgomery
Thomas Fararo
Social network

== References ==

== Further reading ==
Bartos, Otomar. 1967. "Simple Models of Group Behavior." Columbia University Press.
Berger, Joseph. 2000. "Theory and Formalization: Some Reflections on Experience." Sociological Theory 18(3):482-489.
Berger, Joseph, Bernard P. Cohen, J. Laurie Snell, and Morris Zelditch, Jr. 1962. Types of Formalization in Small Group Research. Houghton-Mifflin.
Berger, Joseph and Morris Zelditch Jr. 2002. New Directions in Contemporary Sociological Theory Rowman and Littlefield.
Bonacich, Philip and Philip Lu. Introduction to Mathematical Sociology. Princeton University Press.
Coleman, James S. 1964. An Introduction to Mathematical Sociology. Free Press.
_____. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Harvard University Press.
Doreian, Patrick, Vladimir Batagelj, and Anuska Ferligoj. 2004. Generalized Blockmodeling. Cambridge University Press.
Edling, Christofer R. 2002. "Mathematics in Sociology," Annual Review of Sociology.
Fararo, Thomas J. 1973. Mathematical Sociology. Wiley. Reprinted by Krieger, 1978.
_____. 1984. Editor. Mathematical Ideas and Sociological Theory. Gordon and Breach.
_____. 1989. The Meaning of General Theoretical Sociology: Tradition and Formalization. Cambridge University Press.
Freeman, Linton C. 2004. The Development of Social Network Analysis. Empirical Press.
Heise, David R. 1979. Understanding Events: Affect and the Construction of Social Action. Cambridge University Press.
Helbing, Dirk. 1995. Quantitative Sociodynamics. Kluwer Academics.
Lave, Charles and James March. 1975. An Introduction to Models in the Social Sciences. Harper and Row.
Leik, Robert K. and Barbara F. Meeker. 1975. Mathematical Sociology. Prentice-Hall.
Rapoport, Anatol. 1983. Mathematical Models in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Wiley.
Nicolas Rashevsky.: 1965, The Representation of Organisms in Terms of Predicates, Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 27: 477-491.
Nicolas Rashevsky.: 1969, Outline of a Unified Approach to Physics, Biology and Sociology., Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 31: 159-198.
Rosen, Robert. 1972. "Tribute to Nicolas Rashevsky 1899-1972." Progress in Theoretical Biology 2.
Leik, Robert K. and Barbara F. Meeker. 1975. Mathematical Sociology. Prentice-Hall.
Simon, Herbert A. 1952. "A Formal Theory of Interaction in Social Groups." American Sociological Review 17:202-212.
Wasserman, Stanley and Katherine Faust. 1994. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press.
White, Harrison C. 1963. An Anatomy of Kinship. Prentice-Hall.
_____. 1970. Chains of Opportunity. Harvard University Press.
_____. 1992. Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Action. Princeton University Press.
_____. 2008. Identity and Control: How Social Formations Emerge. 2nd Ed. (Revised) Princeton University Press.

== External links ==
John Skvoretz; Thomas J Fararo (1952). "Mathematical sociology" (PDF). Sociopedia.isa. 170 (4314): 3. Bibcode:1952Natur.170....3G. doi:10.1038/170003a0. S2CID 4181915.
Home Page of Mathematical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association
The Society for Mathematical Biology
Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics
European Society for Mathematical and Theoretical Biology (ESMTB)
Mathematical Sociology Section Home Page