Inkeles, Alex

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INKELES, ALEX

INKELES, ALEX (1920– ), U.S. sociologist. A native of New York, Inkeles received his B.A. in 1941 and an M.A. in 1946 from Cornell University. He received his Ph.D. in 1949 from Columbia University. He was appointed professor of sociology at Harvard University in 1957. He served as director of Studies in Social Relations at the Russian Research Center at Harvard from 1956 to 1961, when he became director of Studies on Social Aspects of Economic Development at the Center of International Affairs at Harvard. Previously, he served as Russian research analyst in the Office of Strategic Services and the International Broadcasting Division of the U.S. Department of State. Inkeles' chief interest was the comparative study of social structures and, especially, the sociology of the Soviet Union.

Among his many postings and international lectureships, Inkeles was a Fulbright scholar in Greece (1977) and Chile (1985) and held a Guggenheim fellowship for study in Israel and the United Kingdom (1977–78). An expert on political behavior, modernization, social psychology, and national character, Inkeles was a consultant on issues related to national development in such countries as China, Bulgaria, and Poland. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1962), the American Philosophical Society (1972), and the National Academy of Sciences (1981).

Inkeles later became professor emeritus of sociology at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the university's Hoover Institute. Later research focused on the social structure of an emerging worldwide society and cross-national comparative studies.

Inkeles co-authored (with D.J. Levinson) "National Character" (in: Handbook of Social Psychology ed. by G. Lindzey, vol.2 (1959), 977–1020) and How the Soviet System Works (1956). His first book, Public Opinion in Soviet Russia: A Study in Mass Persuasion (1950), received the Kappa Tau Alpha Award for the best book on mass communication and journalism. Among his other works are The Soviet Citizen (1959); Prospects for Change in the Soviet Union (1959); Russia and the U.S.A.: Problem in Comparative Sociology (1963); What Is Sociology (1964); Becoming Modern (1974); Exploring Individual Modernity (1983); National Character (1997); and One World Emerging? (1998).