Peter Blau
Peter Michael Blau (1918–2002) was an American sociologist whose research shaped the study of social structure, organizations, and social exchange.
Social exchange theory: A family of theories explaining social relationships through exchanges of valued resources, benefits, and obligations. Blau developed a major sociological account of how exchanges generate enduring social relationships.
Reciprocity: A norm or pattern in which benefits given to others create expectations of return. Reciprocal exchanges can create obligations that sustain relationships beyond immediate transactions.
The American Occupational Structure: A 1967 study by Peter Blau and Otis Dudley Duncan of occupational mobility and stratification in the United States. This landmark study measured how family origins and education shape occupational attainment.
George C. Homans: An American sociologist who explained social behavior through rewards, costs, and repeated exchange. Homans grounded exchange theory in individual behavior, while Blau extended it toward social structure.
Structural sociology: A sociological approach that explains social patterns through relationships, positions, groups, and institutions. Blau’s work exemplifies analysis that treats social relations and positions as structured patterns.
Social structure: The patterned relationships and institutions that organize positions and interactions within a society. Blau studied how recurring interactions form structures beyond individual relationships.
Social exchange: Interaction in which people provide one another with valued benefits and incur social obligations. Blau used exchange between individuals to explain larger patterns of social organization.
Otis Dudley Duncan: An American sociologist and demographer known for quantitative research on social stratification and mobility. Duncan coauthored Blau’s influential analysis of occupational structure and mobility.
Richard Emerson: An American sociologist who developed exchange theory around power, dependence, and social networks. Emerson developed structural exchange theory from questions Blau had helped bring into sociology.
Multidimensional scaling: A family of statistical methods that represents similarities or dissimilarities as distances in a low-dimensional space. Blau used structural analysis to represent patterns of social positions and group relations.