Sociology of Higher Education: Contributions and Their Contexts (review)

While few higher education scholars "self-identify as sociologists of higher education and seek to publish in sociology journals" (p. 344), Patricia Gumport notes in this edited volume that much of our teaching and scholarship is grounded by sociological roots. Indeed, this book illustrates the depth of influence of the scholarship of this "hybrid field," although the field itself does not receive significant visibility among sociologists nor higher education scholars (p. 325).

Two strengths of this volume are: (a) It embodies the scholarship of the field to date, serving as an excellent resource for both graduate students and faculty, and (b) it prompts us to consider issues of placement and perspective within the academy that could inhibit this as well as other "hybrid fields" from growing to their full potential.

The book begins with a reprint of an article by Burton Clark that first appeared in Sociology of Education (1973). Clark considered the sociology of higher education as a fledgling field at the time. In his review, Clark examined lines of inquiry that had developed in the field since World War II, suggested areas of future study, and provided some cautions to those researchers carrying on in the field. The primary purpose of Gumport's edited volume is to update Clark's 1973 discussion of the field. Following the Clark reprint comes Gumport's Chapter 2, in which she discusses several societal and organizational factors that have shaped the growth and direction of the sociology of higher education. These factors include the expansion of the higher education enterprise, global interdependence, and significant changes in the academic workplace.

The next eight chapters thematically review the field's scholarship since 1973 and provide clear evidence of the influence of these factors. Chapters 3 through 6 cover the four domains of inquiry that Clark identified in 1973: inequality, college impact, the academic profession, and colleges and universities as organizations. Notable among these chapters is the contribution of Gary Rhoades who reviews the scholarship on the academic profession and who studied with Clark as a postdoctoral research scholar. His attention to Clark's scholarship on the academic profession is both an insightful glimpse into the contributions of a field leader and an effective lens for contextualizing existing and future studies in the domain.

Chapters 7 through 10 address four additional domains of inquiry that have emerged since Clark's essay in 1973: higher education as an institution, sociological studies of academic departments, the sociology of diversity, and sociological frameworks for policy research. Diversity issues have garnered significant public attention; and as such, this line of inquiry attracts scholars from a number of fields. anthony lising antonio and Marcela Muñiz argue that the domain benefits from these fresh and multidisciplinary perspectives. The chapters on institutional theory, academic departments, and policy research, on the other hand, focus on the need for a greater emphasis on postmodern inquiries that would question structures and processes considered as the sine qua non in higher education contexts.

Chapter authors are renowned scholars with a mix of training and expertise in sociology, education, or both. Some of the chapters, such as Patricia McDonough and Amy Fann's summary of the study of inequality, offer quite thorough literature reviews while other chapters, such as Sylvia Hurtado's contribution on the study of college impact, are more general discussions influenced by that scholar's particular expertise.

These eight chapters taken together reflect the multiple levels at which higher education scholars can embark upon questions from a sociological perspective—ranging from the consideration of higher education as an institution to the examination of organizations, departments, and individual students and faculty. In each domain of inquiry, the existing research seems to focus heavily on one or two of these levels of analysis and less so on the others, a pattern which several chapter authors identify as a weakness. The dearth of comparative sociological research in higher education is also a weakness...