John Porter (sociologist)

John Arthur Porter (November 12, 1921 - June 15, 1979) was one of Canada's most important sociologists during the period from 1950 to the late 1970's. His work in the field of social stratification opened up new areas of inquiry for many sociologists in Canada. Porter was born in Vancouver and completed his education at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom. While at the LSE, he became interested in studies of social class. On returning to Canada he joined the faculty of Carleton University. He remained at Carleton as a professor, and later, as department chairman, dean and academic vice-president. Porter was also visiting professor at Harvard and the University of Toronto.

Vertical mosaic

"The Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada", Porter's most important work, was published in 1965. It was the study of equality of opportunity and the exercise of power by bureaucratic, economic and political elites in Canada. Porter was concerned with challenging the image that Canada was a classless society with "no barriers to opportunity." Porter concludes "The Vertical Mosaic" with the following observations:

:"Canada is probably not unlike other western industrial nations in relying heavily on its elite groups to make major decisions and to determine the shape and direction of its development. The nineteenth-century notion of a liberal citizen-participating democracy is obviously not a satisfactory model by which to examine the processes of decision-making in either the economic of the political contexts... If power and decision-making must always rest with elite groups, there can at least be open recruitment from all classes into the elite. (p. 558).

Porter argues that Marxist class analysis, based on ownership of the means of production is a "questionable criterion of class in modern industrial society" (p. 25). Porter rejects power as the basis for social class, with the observation that conflict between those with power and the powerless is nonexistent. Porter constructs a new model based on the study of elites.

Elites are those who make decisions in the hierarchical institutional systems of modern society. Porter describes elites in the following way:

:"...individuals or groups at the top of our institutions can be designated as elites. Elites both compete and co-operate with one another: they compete to share in the making of decisions of major importance for the society, and they co-operate because together they keep the society working as a going concern. Elites govern institutions which have, in the complex world, functional tasks... It is elites who have the capacity to introduce change..." (p. 27).

Legacy

Porter's analysis is essentially functionalist. While some aspects were inspired by Marxist thinking, he was at pains to present a non-Marxian approach. The nature of the Canadian capitalist class led Porter to develop his model. He noted that this class in the 1950s was a tightly knit group of wealthy, prodominently Anglo-Saxon men, centred in Montreal and Toronto. This group controlled Canada's financial, industrial and political spheres. While there appeared to be one elite, Porter found that there were actually several elite groups, comprising economic, political, labour, and ideological realms. His work thus echoes and expands on United States sociologist C. Wright Mills' study of power elites in the United States.

"The Vertical Mosaic" led to the adoption of the term "cultural mosaic" by Canadian government agencies such as Statistics Canada, but Porter himself was an opponent of Canada's multiculturalism policy.

Porter, along with Peter Pineo, developed the Pineo-Porter index of socioeconomic status.

To honour Porter's importance in developing sociology in Canada, the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association initiated an annual award called the Porter award.

Shortly before his death in 1979, he put together ten of his most significant essays in "The Measure of Canadian Society: Education, Equality, and Opportunity". He died in Ottawa later that year.

References

*Porter, J. 1965. "The Vertical Mosaic: An Analysis of Social Class and Power in Canada". University of Toronto Press.
*Porter, J. 1979. "The Measure of Canadian Society: Education, Equality and Opportunity".

External links

* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0006420 "Porter, John Arthur" "The Canadian Encyclopedia"]
* [http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/d7f99.htm "Canadian Social Approaches"] Notes from a lecture by Paul Gingrich, University of Regina Department of Sociology and Social Studies (1999).