James S. Coleman

James Samuel Coleman was an American sociologist, born in 1926, who spent most of his career at the University of Chicago and served as president of the American Sociological Association in 1991 and 1992. He directed the 1966 federal study Equality of Educational Opportunity, known as the Coleman Report, which found that a student's family and social background shaped academic achievement more strongly than school funding or resources, a finding that reshaped American education policy debates. He was among the earliest sociologists to develop the concept of social capital, the value created by networks of relationships and trust within a community, and his 1990 book Foundations of Social Theory built an influential rational-choice framework for sociology, treating social outcomes as arising from the purposive actions of individuals. He also wrote The Adolescent Society (1961), a study of American high school social life. He died in 1995.