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The paper provides insights on the contemporary relevance of Talcott Parsons's writings by analyzing 20 textbooks from Austria, Germany, Great Britain and the United States, published in 1999–2019. Whether having knowledge of Parsons is helpful to today's students and other interested readers, and what knowledge, deserves consideration. Therefore , the paper asks: Which future gains of readers did textbook authors envision when they chose, in their own present, to discuss (or not) sociological writings from long ago? In order to understand what future opportunities authors wanted to create for readers, as well as how they chose to discuss Parsons to this end, the paper draws on Niklas Luhmann's notion of memory. The analysis reveals several key competencies that student and other interested readers might acquire through having knowledge of Parsons' writings and its critiques. These potentials would have gone unnoticed if authors had assessed Parsons's relevance only according to whether he adequately considered conflict or not, as has been done in many debates about his work until today. Moreover, through analyzing how authors remembered Parsons, I distilled two key selective criteria: First, what must be remembered in order to enable readers to acquire those competencies? Second, which memories would be impeding for readers and thus be better left out? These criteria are relevant for research, as well. Looking at the future, it would be desirable that sociologists let Parsons assist them in their research in many different ways, if possible. As a result, we might see a revival of Parsons that enables genuine advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a cross-disciplinary approach and multiple sources of data to investigate and outline sources of comparative advantage that undergraduate sociological study provides to students who are preparing for careers in business. We identify and discuss three core competencies that sociology specifically develops in students—structural consciousness, scientific thinking, and appreciation for diversity. We argue that sociology contributes unique value by combining these three competencies. We also offer thoughts on ways in which sociologists could further enhance undergraduate curricula, such as through emphasizing aspects of these contributions in a more explicit fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Publishers scurry to reprint material from earlier decades all in soft covers and each projected by a hard-sell campaign calling it a classic in the fields. The National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the Russell Sage Foundation and the recently created National Institute for Balanced Behavioral Life Ecological Studies report a huge surplus of funds as sociologists cease their search for grants and awards. The worth of a sociologist became based more on some one's perception of his future prospects than on the record of his past performance. Thus the phrase publish or perish lost its peril, and the phrase circulate or suffocate came to supplant it. More recently students of the history of sociological knowledge have identified factors other than this self-seducing process that may have contributed to grinding the discipline to an intellectual halt. Their contention is that in the late 1960's sociologists were so obsessed with the organizational structure of their profession that little energy remained either for scholarship or for collective deliberation to unlock the vice like grip of personnel demands.