SOCIOLOGISTS from Austria

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Austrian Sociologists of all time. This list of famous Austrian Sociologists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Peter L. Berger (1929 - 2017)

With an HPI of 62.93, Peter L. Berger is the most famous Austrian Sociologist.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages on wikipedia.

Peter Ludwig Berger (17 March 1929 – 27 June 2017) was an Austrian-born American sociologist and Protestant theologian. Berger became known for his work in the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, study of modernization, and theoretical contributions to sociological theory. Berger is arguably best known for his book, co-authored with Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York, 1966), which is considered one of the most influential texts in the sociology of knowledge and played a central role in the development of social constructionism. In 1998 the International Sociological Association named this book as the fifth most-influential book written in the field of sociology during the 20th century. In addition to this book, some of the other books that Berger has written include: Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective (1963); A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural (1969); and The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (1967). Berger spent most of his career teaching at The New School for Social Research, at Rutgers University, and at Boston University. Before retiring, Berger had been at Boston University since 1981 and was the director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture.

2. Paul Lazarsfeld (1901 - 1976)

With an HPI of 61.25, Paul Lazarsfeld is the 2nd most famous Austrian Sociologist.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (February 13, 1901 – August 30, 1976) was an Austrian-American sociologist and mathematician. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, he exerted influence over the techniques and the organization of social research. "It is not so much that he was an American sociologist," one colleague said of him after his death, "as it was that he determined what American sociology would be." Lazarsfeld said that his goal was "to produce Paul Lazarsfelds".: 3  He was a founding figure in 20th-century empirical sociology.