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The Credential Society: A Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification
The Credential Society is a classic on the role of higher education in American society and an essential text for understanding the reproduction of inequality. Controversial at the time, Randall Collins's claim that the expansion of American education has not increased social mobility, but rather created a cycle of credential inflation, has proven remarkably prescient.Collins shows how credential inflation stymies mass education's promises of upward mobility. An unacknowledged spiral of the rising production of credentials and job requirements was brought about by the expansion of high school and then undergraduate education, with consequences including grade inflation, rising educational costs, and misleading job promises dangled by for-profit schools. Collins examines medicine, law, and engineering to show the ways in which credentialing closed these high-status professions to new arrivals. In an era marked by the devaluation of high school diplomas, outcry about the value of expensive undergraduate degrees, and the proliferation of new professional degrees like the MBA, The Credential Society has more than stood the test of time. In a new preface, Collins discusses recent developments, debunks claims that credentialization is driven by technological change, and points to alternative pathways for the future of education.
229 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1979
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About the author
Randall Collins
59 books107 followers Dr. Randall Collins is an American sociologist who has been influential in both his teaching and writing. He has taught in many notable universities around the world and his academic works have been translated into various languages. Collins is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a leading contemporary social theorist whose areas of expertise include the macro-historical sociology of political and economic change; micro-sociology, including face-to-face interaction;and the sociology of intellectuals and social conflict. He has devoted much of his career and research to study society, how is it created and destroyed through emotional behaviors of human beings. He is considered to be one of the leading non-Marxist conflict theorists in the United States, and served as the president of the American Sociological Association from 2010 to 2011.
Dr. Collins' first position in academia was at UC Berkeley, followed by many other universities including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by the UC San Diego, the University of Virginia, then UC Riverside, and finally the University of Pennsylvania. He took intermittent breaks from academia, as a novelist, and as a freelance scholar. He has also been a visiting professor at Chicago, Harvard, and Cambridge, as well as various schools in Europe, Japan, and China. Collins has published almost one hundred articles since finishing his undergraduate education. He has also written and contributed to several books with a range of topics such as the discovery of society to the sociology of marriage and family life.
Dr. Collins grew up in a slew of different cities and countries, his father being a diplomat (and possible spy) with the US State Department during the Cold War. They lived in Germany immediately following World War II, and later in Moscow, among other places such as Uruguay.
Dr. Collins' first position in academia was at UC Berkeley, followed by many other universities including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, followed by the UC San Diego, the University of Virginia, then UC Riverside, and finally the University of Pennsylvania. He took intermittent breaks from academia, as a novelist, and as a freelance scholar. He has also been a visiting professor at Chicago, Harvard, and Cambridge, as well as various schools in Europe, Japan, and China. Collins has published almost one hundred articles since finishing his undergraduate education. He has also written and contributed to several books with a range of topics such as the discovery of society to the sociology of marriage and family life.
Dr. Collins grew up in a slew of different cities and countries, his father being a diplomat (and possible spy) with the US State Department during the Cold War. They lived in Germany immediately following World War II, and later in Moscow, among other places such as Uruguay.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 25, 2012
Really good stuff, but it's been extensively demonstrated that job performance is to some degree related to IQ.
I liked how aware he was (in what was basically a footnote, no less) of the impact of ethnic diversity on American society.
Actually I read this a while ago so I don't remember too much of what I thought. I think I had some smart stuff to say but I don't remember.
I liked how aware he was (in what was basically a footnote, no less) of the impact of ethnic diversity on American society.
Actually I read this a while ago so I don't remember too much of what I thought. I think I had some smart stuff to say but I don't remember.
May 21, 2025
This is a legacy edition of a classic study by one of the deans of the field of sociology and there is a lot of interesting information in the book about how various professions developed (Law, Engineering, Medicine) and how the various subgroups in each field created specific hierarchies.
But what bothered me about the effort was two distinct issues. First, and this may be the difference between a sociological approach to a subject and an economist's. Collins fails to ascribe the motives of rent seeking in the development and elaboration of the professions and their licensing.
I live part of the year in a state where more than 300 professions require some type of licensure. In my time in working with the California legislature I had to sit though arcane discussions on why it was necessary to license hair braiders. Or why it would be a good idea to limit licensure for social workers who did not graduate from a National Association of Social Work accredited institution. But all of those issues and many more come before the legislature.
My second problem with the book is that I am not sure that Collins thought enough about the appropriate level of licensure and how to judge it. The book is partially dated because in his discussion of licensure in the health professions, (and this is a not a defect in the book but its timing) . But in the last two decades the role of nurses has been transformed because of the simple fact that we are not producing enough physicians to meet health care demand.
California is an examplar of the complexities of licensure. As we gained more Mexican immigrants the Curanderos came. Curanderos use mostly homeopathic remedies for a wide range of ills. But the CMA (Physicians organization) wanted to stamp out that traditional role. For about a year I sat through hearings of these folk practitioners work their way through the maze of the legislative process. Quality assurance was a constant theme offered by the CMA and serving the needs of many people who don't normally use physicians was represented on the other.
Finally Collins covers the role of the educational establishment in enhancing the role of licensure. The Social Workers controversy was ultimately a fight between the politics of the NASW, which had an overlay of some politically correct limits, versus other universities who refused to accept the NASW standards. Colleges and universities and accrediting associations (supposedly the protectors of standards) have increasingly used licensure to punish institutions which do not conform to the norm.
Licensure is necessary but fraught with tons of moral hazards.
But what bothered me about the effort was two distinct issues. First, and this may be the difference between a sociological approach to a subject and an economist's. Collins fails to ascribe the motives of rent seeking in the development and elaboration of the professions and their licensing.
I live part of the year in a state where more than 300 professions require some type of licensure. In my time in working with the California legislature I had to sit though arcane discussions on why it was necessary to license hair braiders. Or why it would be a good idea to limit licensure for social workers who did not graduate from a National Association of Social Work accredited institution. But all of those issues and many more come before the legislature.
My second problem with the book is that I am not sure that Collins thought enough about the appropriate level of licensure and how to judge it. The book is partially dated because in his discussion of licensure in the health professions, (and this is a not a defect in the book but its timing) . But in the last two decades the role of nurses has been transformed because of the simple fact that we are not producing enough physicians to meet health care demand.
California is an examplar of the complexities of licensure. As we gained more Mexican immigrants the Curanderos came. Curanderos use mostly homeopathic remedies for a wide range of ills. But the CMA (Physicians organization) wanted to stamp out that traditional role. For about a year I sat through hearings of these folk practitioners work their way through the maze of the legislative process. Quality assurance was a constant theme offered by the CMA and serving the needs of many people who don't normally use physicians was represented on the other.
Finally Collins covers the role of the educational establishment in enhancing the role of licensure. The Social Workers controversy was ultimately a fight between the politics of the NASW, which had an overlay of some politically correct limits, versus other universities who refused to accept the NASW standards. Colleges and universities and accrediting associations (supposedly the protectors of standards) have increasingly used licensure to punish institutions which do not conform to the norm.
Licensure is necessary but fraught with tons of moral hazards.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews