This article provides a list of noted sociologists and major contributors to sociology (even if they did not primarily work as sociologists):

A

• Jane Addams (1860-1935), American social worker and reformer
• Theodor Adorno (1903-1969), German cultural sociologist (Frankfurt School)
• Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), German political theorist
• Raymond Aron (1905 - 1983) French philosopher and sociologist
• Johan Asplund (b. 1937) Swedish sociologist

B

• Gregory Bateson (1904-1980), English/American cybernetican
• Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929), French cultural theorist
• Zygmunt Bauman (b. 1925), British sociologist
• Ulrich Beck (1944-), German sociologist
• Daniel Bell (born 1919) sociologist and professor emeritus at Harvard University.
• Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), German cultural sociologist
• Peter L. Berger (b. 1929), Austro-American sociologist
• Henri Bergson (1859-1941), French philosopher
• Herbert Blumer (1900 - 1997), American sociologist
• Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), French sociologist
• Ernest Burgess (1886-1966), Canadian-born sociologist
• Judith Butler (b. 1956), American gender theorist

C

• Manuel Castells (b. 1942), Spanish sociologist and urban planner
• James S. Coleman (1926-1995), American sociologist
• Auguste Comte (1798-1857), French founder of sociology
• Charles Cooley (1864-1929), American sociologist
• Stefan Czarnowski (1879-1937), Polish sociologist

D

• Robert Dahl (b.1915) American political scientist
• Ralf Dahrendorf (b.1929) German-British sociologist, philosopher and politician
• Gilles Deleuze (1925 - 1995) French philosopher
• W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963), African-American civil rights leader
• Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), French founder of sociology
• Nancy Denton , American sociologist and demographer

E

• Norbert Elias (1897-1990), German sociologist
• Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), German socialist philosopher
• Amitai Etzioni (1929 -), American sociologist

F

• Paul Fauconnet (1874-1938) French sociologist
• Fei Xiaotong (b.1910) Chinese sociologist and anthropologist
• Heinz von Foerster (1911-2002), Austrian-American cybernetican
• Michel Foucault (1926-1984), French sociologist
• Charles Fourier (1772-1837), French proto-sociologist
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Austrian psycho-analyst
• Hans Freyer (1887 - 1969) conservative German sociologist and philosopher
• Erich Fromm (1900-1980), German-American psychologist

G

• Francis Galton (1822-1911), English statistican
• Harold Garfinkel (b.1917) Professor Emeritus in sociology at Harvard University
• Felix Guattari (1930 - 1992) French institutional psychotherapist, founder of schizoanalysis and ecosophy
• Anthony Giddens (b. 1938), English sociologist
• Corrado Gini (1884-1965), Italian statistician
• Arnold Gehlen (1904 - 1976) conservative German philosopher and sociologist
• Theodor Geiger (1891-1952) German-Danish sociologist
• Ernest Gellner(1925 - 1995) philosopher and social anthropologist
• Max Gluckman (1911-1975) South African/English social anthropologist
• John H. Goldthorpe (b. 1935) British sociologist
• Erving Goffman (1922-1982), Canadian interactionistic sociologist
• Antonio Gramsci (1891-1931), Italian Marxist
• Richard Grathoff (1934- ), German sociologist and phenomenologist
• Mark Granovetter, American sociologist
• Ludwig Gumplovicz (1838 -1909) Polish-Austrian sociologist, one of the founders of European sociology

H

• Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929), German social theorist
• Maurice Halbwachs (1877 - 1945) French philosopher and sociologist
• Stuart Hall (b.1932) British cultural theorist
• Donna Haraway (b. 1944) American gender and technology theorist
• David Harvey (b.1935) British geographer
• Georg F. Hegel (1770-1831), German philosopher
• Richard Hoggart (b. 1918), British sociologist (Birmingham School, culture studies)
• George C. Homans (1910-1989) American behavioural sociologist
• Max Horkheimer (1895-1973), German social philosopher (Frankfurt School)
• Floyd Hunter (b.1912), American sociologist

I

• Ibn Khaldun (1332/ah732 - 1406/ah808), North African historian, forerunner of modern historiography, sociology and economics

J

• Jane Jacobs (b.1916) US/Canadian writer and activist
• Lewis Wade Jones (1910 - 1979) African-American sociologist and educator

K

• Karin Knorr Cetina (b.1944) Austrian-American sociologist
• Alfred L. Kroeber (1876–1960) American anthropologist
• Thomas S. Kuhn (1922-1996), American science theorist
• Antonina Kłoskowska (1919-2001), Polish sociologist

L

• William Labov (b.1927) American sociolinguist and dialectologist
• Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), French psychoanalyst
• Bruno Latour (1947- ) French sociologist of science
• Paul F. Lazarsfeld (1901-1976) Austrian-American sociologist
• Gustave le Bon (1841-1931) French social psychologist and sociologist
• Henri Lefebvre (1901 - 1991), French Marxist philosopher
• Claude Lévi-Strauss (b. 1908), French anthropologist
• Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857-1939) French philosopher, sociologist and ethnographer
• Seymour Martin Lipset (b. 1922), American comparativist sociologist
• Thomas Luckmann (b. 1927), German sociologist
• Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998), German sociologist (systems theory)
• Rosa Luxemburg (1870-1919), German socialist theoretician
• Robert Staughton Lynd (1892 - 1970) American sociologist
• Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998), French philosopher

M

• Henry Maine (1822-1888), British jurist and legal historian
• Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942), Polish anthropologist
• Thomas Malthus (1766-1834), English demographer
• Richard Machalek (b. 1946) American sociologist and sociobiologist
• Michael Mann (b. 1942) British-American sociologist
• Karl Mannheim (1893-1947), German-speaking sociologist
• Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979), German-American sociologist (Frankfurt School)
• Wladyslaw Markiewicz (b. 1920) Polish sociologist
• Karl Marx (1818-1883), German political philosopher and social theorist
• Douglas Massey , American sociologist
• Humberto Maturana(b. 1928), Chilean biologist and philosopher
• Marcel Mauss (1872-1950) French sociologist
• Dale McConkey , American sociologist
• Robert McKenzie(1917-1981), Canadian-born Politics professor and psephologist.
• George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) American philosopher and social psychologist
• Margaret Mead (1901-1978), American cultural anthropologist
• Henri Mendras (1927-2003), French sociologist, chronicler of La fin des paysans
• Robert K. Merton (1910 - 2003) American sociologist
• Robert Michels (1876 - 1936) German political sociologist
• C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) American sociologist
• Robert Morrison MacIver (1882 - 1970) Scottish-American sociologist.

N

• Oswald von Nell-Breuning (1890-1991), German Roman Catholic theologian, sociologist and social reformer
• Otto Neurath (1882-1945), Austrian sociologist and political economist
• Peter Neville (d. 2002) British further education lecturer and sociologist

O

• William F. Ogburn (1886 - 1959) American sociologist
• Franz Oppenheimer (1864-1943) German sociologist and political economist
• Stanislaw Ossowski (1897-1963), Polish sociologist
• Robert Owen (1771 - 1858), Welsh social reformer

P

• Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923), Italian economist and sociologist
• Robert E. Park (1864 - 1944), American sociologist
• Vance Packard (1914-1996), American proto-pop-sociologist
• Talcott Parsons (1902-1979), American functionalist sociologist
• Karl Pearson (1857-1936), English statistician
• Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) Swiss developmental psychologist
• Robert Putnam (b. 1941) American political scientist

Q

R

• Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881–1955) British social anthropologist
• Aviad Raz (b. 1968) Israeli sociologist and anthropologist
• George Ritzer (b. 1940), American sociologist
• Terje Rød-Larsen (b. 1947) Norwegian diplomat and sociologist
• Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888-1973) German-born social philosopher
• Walter Garrison Runciman, 3rd Viscount Runciman of Doxford British sociologist

S

• Harvey Sacks (d. 1975) American sociologist in the ethnomethodology tradition
• Henri Saint-Simon (1760 - 1825) French philosopher and social thinker
• Saskia Sassen , American sociologist
• Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), Swiss linguist (structuralism)
• Helmut Schelsky (1912-1984), German sociologist
• Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883 – 1950), economist
• Alfred Schütz (1899-1959), Austrian philosopher and sociologist (phenomenology)
• Richard Sennett (b. 1943) American sociologist and public figure
• Ali Shariati (1933-1977), Iranian sociologist
• Charles E. Silberman, American criminologist
• Albion Woodbury Small (1854-1926), American sociologist, founder of Chicago University Dept. of Sociology
• Georg Simmel (1858-1918), German sociologist
• Adam Smith(1723-1790), Scottish economist and philosopher
• Werner Sombart (1863-1941), German economist and sociologist
• Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968), Russian sociologist
• Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), English philosopher
• Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), German philosopher
• M N Srinivas (1916 - 1999) Indian Sociologist
• Anselm L. Strauss (1916 - 1996) American sociologist (sociology of medicine, qualitative methods)
• William Graham Sumner (1840-1910) American advocate of Social Darwinism
• Eilert Sundt (1817-1875) Norwegian sociologist
• Gerald Suttles , American social constructionist
• Jan Szczepański (1913-2004) Polish sociologist

T

• Gabriel Tarde (1843 - 1904) French sociologist and social psychologist
• W. I. Thomas (1863 - 1947) American social psychologist
• Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859) French essayist and political analyst
• Ferdinand Tönnies (1855-1936) German sociologist

U

V

• Francisco Varela (1946-2001), Chilean biologist and philosopher
• Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), American economist and sociologist
• Nildo Viana (b.1965) Brazilian sociologist and philosopher

W

• Immanuel Wallerstein (b. 1930), American sociologist and historian
• Peter Wagner, German sociologist and social theorist
• Lester Frank Ward (1841-1913) important founder of American sociology
• Beatrice Webb (1858-1943), British socialist and social theorist
• Sidney Webb (1859-1947), British socialist and social theorist
• Alfred Weber (1868-1958), German sociologist
• Max Weber (1864-1920), German sociologist
• Edward Westermarck (1862-1939), Finnish sociologist and philosopher
• William H. Whyte (b.1917) American sociologist, journalist and peoplewatcher
• William Julius Wilson (b.1935) American sociologist
• Louis Wirth (1897 - 1952), German-American sociologist
• Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski (b. 1944), Polish sociologist
• Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), British social reformer

X

Y

Z

• Jean Ziegler (1934-) professor of sociology at the University of Geneva and the Sorbonne, Paris.
• Slavoj Zizek (b. 1949), Slovenian sociologist and philosopher
• Florian Znaniecki (1882-1958), Polish and American sociologist

External link

• Timeline of Sociology