Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology
Frances Fox Piven, CUNY-Graduate Center and
Richard A. Cloward, Columbia University
Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, joint recipients of this year’s award, have directed much of their work to studies of the poor and the disenfranchised. Their prolific and influential writing about these groups is found in both academic and opinion publications. Beyond their writing, they have taken a giant step toward the application of their scholarship by creating the means to empower the very economically disadvantaged and politically marginalized groups they have studied. For example, they are founders of the National Welfare Rights Organization, whose activities contributed to legislation and policies according greater protection to poor women. They were also founders of the Human Service Employees Registration and the Voter Campaign, which led to the motor-voter legislation. Clearly, there is a most congenial fit between the purpose and spirit of the award and the remarkable achievements of this singular team of social scientists.
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