Question: Edward Otto Laumann (born August 31, 1938) is an American sociologist, Laumann earned his Ph.D. in the Harvard Department of Social Relations in 1964, where he studied under Talcott Parsons, an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his what, and structural functionalism?

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Edward Laumann: Edward Otto Laumann (born August 31, 1938) is an American sociologist.  He is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago.  Laumann earned his Ph.D. in the Harvard Department of Social Relations in 1964, where he studied under George Homans, Talcott Parsons, and Harrison White.  He has written extensively on social stratification, urban sociology, organizational sociology, health and aging, and is widely recognized as a pioneer in the areas of social network analysis and the sociology of sexuality.  In 2013, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Pitirim Sorokin: Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin ( ; Russian: Питири́м Алекса́ндрович Соро́кин , 2 February [O.S. 21 January] 1889 , Turiya village, Vologda Governorate – 10 February 1968, Winchester, Massachusetts) was a Russian American sociologist born in modern-day Komi Republic of Russia.  An academic and political activist, he emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1923.  In 1930, at the age of 40, Sorokin was personally requested by the president of Harvard University to accept a position there.  At Harvard, he founded the Department of Sociology.  He was a vocal critic of his colleague Talcott Parsons.  Sorokin was an ardent opponent of Communism, which he regarded as a "pest of man."  He is best known for his contributions to the social cycle theory.

Harvard Department of Social Relations: The Department of Social Relations for Interdisciplinary Social Science Studies, more commonly known as the "Department of Social Relations" was an interdisciplinary collaboration among three of the social science departments at Harvard University (anthropology, psychology, and sociology) beginning in 1946.  Originally, the program was headquartered in Emerson Hall at Harvard before moving to William James Hall in 1965.  While the name "Social Relations" is often associated with the program's long-time chair and guiding spirit, sociologist Talcott Parsons, many major figures of mid-20th-century social science also numbered among the program's faculty, including psychologists Gordon Allport (personality and motivation), Jerome Bruner (cognitive psychology and narrative analysis), Roger Brown (social psychology and psycholinguistics), and Henry Murray (personality); anthropologists Clyde and Florence Kluckhohn (value orientations), John and Beatrice Whiting (cross-cultural child development), Evon Z. Vogt (comparative religion); and sociologist Alex Inkeles (Soviet studies and national character).  Many of its graduate students also went on to be major figures in U.S. social sciences during the latter part of the twentieth century; their work tends towards strong interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches.

Michael Schwartz (sociologist): Michael H. Schwartz (born 1942) is an American sociologist and prominent critic of the Iraq war.  He is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in New York, where he also serves as faculty director of the Undergraduate College of Global Studies and Chair of the Sociology Department.  Schwartz has written extensively in the areas of economic sociology and social movements.  Schwartz received his doctorate from the Department of Social Relations, Harvard University, where he was a student of Harrison White and Charles Tilly.  His writings on Iraq have appeared in "TomDispatch", "Asia Times", "Mother Jones", and "Contexts".  In "Radical Protest and Social Structure", Schwartz develops the concept of structural ignorance to refer to how individuals make choices and decisions in regard to collective action based on their position in the social structure, which constrains their access to relevant information.

Structural functionalism: Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.  This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms.  This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions.  A common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer, presents these parts of society as "organs" that work toward the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole.  In the most basic terms, it simply emphasizes "the effort to impute, as rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or practice, its effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable, cohesive system".  For Talcott Parsons, "structural-functionalism" came to describe a particular stage in the methodological development of social science, rather than a specific school of thought.

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (German: "Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus" ) is a book written by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician.  Begun as a series of essays, the original German text was composed in 1904 and 1905, and was translated into English for the first time by American sociologist Talcott Parsons in 1930.  It is considered a founding text in economic sociology and sociology in general.

Talcott Parsons: Talcott Parsons (December 13, 1902 – May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist of the classical tradition, best known for his social action theory and structural functionalism.  Parsons is considered one of the most influential figures in the development of sociology in the 20th century.  After earning a Ph.D. in economics, he served on the faculty at Harvard University from 1927 to 1979.  In 1930, he was among the first professors in its new sociology department.

AGIL paradigm: The AGIL paradigm is a sociological scheme created by American sociologist Talcott Parsons in the 1950s.  It is a systematic depiction of certain societal functions, which every society must meet to be able to maintain stable social life.  The AGIL paradigm is part of Parsons's larger action theory, outlined in his notable book "The Structure of Social Action", in "The Social System" and in later works, which aims to construct a unified map of all action systems, and ultimately "living systems."  Indeed, the actual AGIL system only appeared in its first elaborate form in 1956, and Parsons extended the system in various layers of complexity during the rest of his intellectual life.  Towards the end of his life, he added a new dimension to the action system, which he called the paradigm of the human condition; within that paradigm, the action system occupied the integral dimension.

Jesse R. Pitts: Jesse Richard Pitts (1921–2003), was an American sociologist specializing in deviance and social control, family sociology, sociological theory, French society, and criminology.  He is considered one of the leading disciples of Talcott Parsons, dean of American sociologists for much of the 20th century.  Pitts is perhaps best known for his contributions to a large textbook on sociology, "Theories of Society: Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory", edited by Parsons and published in 1961.  He pioneered sociological work on marginality, deviance and conformity.  He was interested particularly in criminology and the institutional treatment of mental illness.  Raised on both sides of the Atlantic, Pitts felt at home in France as much as in the United States.  He created the Franco-American periodical "The Tocqueville Review", serving as editor from 1978 to 1991.

Pierre L. van den Berghe: Pierre L. van den Berghe (born 1933) is professor emeritus of sociology and anthropology at the University of Washington, where he has worked since 1965.  Born in the Belgian Congo to Belgian parents, and spending World War II in occupied Belgium, he was an early witness to ethnic conflict and racism, which eventually led him to become a leading authority on ethnic relations.  He has conducted field work in South Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, Iran, Lebanon, Nigeria, Peru, and Israel.  Early in his career, he lectured at the University of Natal alongside Leo Kuper and Fatima Meer.  A student of Talcott Parsons at Harvard (receiving the Ph.D. in 1960), he nevertheless had little interest in structural functionalism and was one of the first proponents of sociobiological approaches to social phenomena.

Supporting paragraphs: Edward Laumann Talcott Parsons
Answer: social action theory