Background
Floyd Hunter was born on February 26, 1912, in Richmond, Kentucky, son of Jesse Hunter, a farmer, and Dovie Benton.
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book
Community Organization: Action and Inaction
(Here is a study of Salem, Massachusetts, as that communit...)
Here is a study of Salem, Massachusetts, as that community went about conducting a self-study to discover its needs and moved toward meeting some of them. The story of how a committee was appointed and what it finally accomplished makes a fascinating study of community organization. Originally published in 1956. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807868760/?tag=2022091-20
Top Leadership, U.S.A. (Enduring Editions)
(This book is based on a field study in which Hunter visit...)
This book is based on a field study in which Hunter visited all cities of over a million population in the United States and many smaller cities interviewing the majority of a highly selected group of individuals regarded by their community peers as top national policymakers. The results is a book that lays bare the structure of national decisionmaking, showing how a distinct and recognizable group of men leads the American people. Originally published in 1959. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0807878812/?tag=2022091-20
Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers
(In this study of busy, complex Regional City -- and it is...)
In this study of busy, complex Regional City -- and it is a real city -- the author has analyzed the power structure from top to bottom. He has searched out the men of power and, under fictitious names, has described them as they initiate policies in their offices, their homes, their clubs. They form a small, stable group at the top of the social structure. Their decision-making activities are not known to the public, but they are responsible for whatever is done, or not done, in their community. Beneath this top policy group is a clearly marked social stratification, through which decisions sift down to the substructures chosen to put them into effect. The dynamic relations within the power structure are made clear in charts, but the real interest lies in the author's report of what people themselves say. The African American community is also studied, with its own power structure and its own complicated relations with the large community. The method of study is fully described in an Appendix. The book should be of particular value to sociologists, political scientists, city-planning executives, Community Council members, social workers, teachers, and research workers in related fields. As a vigorous and readable presentation of facts, it should appeal to the reader who would like to know how his/her own community is run. Community Power Structure is not an expose. It is a description and discussion of a social phenomenon as it occured. It is based on sound field research, including personal observation and interviews by the author.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZVESYDK/?tag=2022091-20
Floyd Hunter
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Education
Hunter attended Richmond public schools and received both his B. A. (1939) in social science and his M. A. (1941) in social service administration from the University of Chicago.
Career
Hunter began his career as a social worker in Texas in the 1930s, moved to Chicago, and then to Indianapolis around 1940 as a social work administrator. From there he went to Atlanta in 1943 to head the southeastern regional office of the U. S. O. From 1946 to 1948 he headed the Atlanta Community Council, an experience which only provided real-life fodder for the growth of his power scheme. Following a political dispute with business leaders over the use of public property for a Henry Wallace campaign rally in the 1948 election (which had been allowed in the case of the Republican campaign), Hunter was fired from his position. He then moved to the University of North Carolina (U. N. C. ), where he received his Ph. D. (1951) in sociology and anthropology. His doctoral dissertation, Community Power Structure (1953), became his most famous published work. A penetrating look at the power of business elites in Atlanta, it was followed up by his 1979 Community Power Succession.
These two works, more than any others, established Hunter as a leading progenitor of the power elite model of political sociology, a theme later picked up by C. Wright Mills and G. William Domhoff. In broad terms, Hunter and his intellectual descendants represented a crystallization of a 20th-century American paradigm which followed the earlier "conflict" model of economic domination established by Marx in 19th-century Europe. The main assumption of this model—that society was dominated by a relatively small group of social, economic, and political elites who make self-interested decisions in the absence of significant countervailing power—represented a challenge to the more consensually-oriented theory of structural functionalism that had held sway on American sociology for decades. Both of Hunter's studies on Atlanta held firmly to his basic theme.
Floyd Hunter died on March 20, 1992, in Sonoma, United States.
Achievements
Works
book
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Top Leadership, U.S.A. (Enduring Editions)
(This book is based on a field study in which Hunter visit...)
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Community Organization: Action and Inaction
(Here is a study of Salem, Massachusetts, as that communit...)
-
Community Power Structure: A Study of Decision Makers
(In this study of busy, complex Regional City -- and it is...)
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Top Leadership, U.S.A. (Enduring Editions)
Connections
On December 23, 1937, Floyd Hunter married Ester Araya Rojas, the couple had four children.
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Born
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Died
March 20, 1992 (aged 80) -
Nationality
American -
Political Party
Progressive Party