Robert K. Merton is unarguably one of the most influential sociologists of his time. A figure whose wide-ranging theoretical and methodological contributions have become fundamental to the field, Merton is best known for introducing such concepts and procedures as unanticipated consequences, self-fu[...]

Reappraises the legacy of sociological thinking about change, from the classical to the contemporary, covering the four grand visions of social and historical change which have dominated the field since the 19th century: the evolutionary, the cyclical, the dialectical and the post-developmentalist.[...]