Paul W. Kingston

Background

Paul W. Kingston was born on March 22, 1951, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, to Paul J. and Ruth C. Kingston.

Education

In 1973, Paul received a Bachelor of Arts from Williams College, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1980.

Career

Prior to 2017, Kingston was a Professor of Sociology, and by courtesy, Professor in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia Sociology Department. He finished a three-year term as Chair of the Department of Sociology in August 2007. He has served as an associate editor for Social Forces, Sociology of Education, and Journal of Family Issues. He frequently teaches Introductory Sociology.

He is currently working with Steve Nock on an NSF funded project, "The Distribution of obligations" - a study of who feels obliged to help whom, with a particular concern for the relation between private and public responsibilities.

Achievements

• Paul W. Kingston is known as a contributor and author of works on stratification; the sociology of education, especially the connection between schooling and stratification; the family, particularly the connection between work and family lives; and political sociology.

Works

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  • The High Status Track: Studies of Elite Schools and Stratification

    (The essays in this groundbreaking volume significantly ad...)

    1990
  • Britain and the Politics of Modernization in the Middle East, 1945-1958

    (In an historically informed critique of development assis...)

    1996
  • Elder Abuse: Concepts, theories and interventions

    (The concept of elder abuse and neglect as a social proble...)

    1993
  • The Classless Society

    (In The Classless Society Paul Kingston forcefully answers...)

    2000
  • Maternity Policies and Working Women 1983
  • The Wages of Writing 1986
  • The Sociology of Public Issues 1990

Views

Paul's primary interests are stratification, the sociology of education, especially the connection between schooling and stratification, the family, particularly the connection between work and family lives, and political sociology.

Kingston's recent work has been directed to the question, "Are there classes?" The Classless Society draws on a large body of research to demonstrate that presumed 'classes' are diverse in family backgrounds, divided in their political and cultural orientations, and unconnected by common sentiments or interaction. And so class theory fails, he argues. This critique draws a sharp distinction between class structure and inequality (a persistent reality) and insists on a realist conception of class that treats class structuration as a multidimensional variable.

Kingston has analyzed, with four graduate student collaborators, why educational attainment is associated with so many social outcomes "Why Education Matters," Sociology of Education. This research has developed from his earlier work on credentialism in the labor market, e.g., The High-Status Track: Studies of Elite Schools and Stratification.

Connections

On June 7, 1974, Kingston married Jane Censer. They have three children: Paul Brendan, Ann Ruth and Matthew Patrick.

Father:

Paul J. Kingston

Mother:

Ruth C. Kingston

Wife:

Jane Censer

Son:

Paul Brendan Kingston

Daughter:

Ann Ruth Kingston

Son:

Matthew Patrick Kingston

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Non-Fiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series brings researchers the most recent data on the worlds most-popular authors.
  2010