Kingsley Davis

Who was Kingsley Davis?

Kingsley Davis is an internationally recognized American sociologist and demographer. He was identified by the American Philosophical Society as one of the most outstanding social scientists of the twentieth century, and was a Hoover Institution senior research fellow. He led and conducted major studies of societies in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia, coined the term "population explosion,", and played a major role in the naming and development of the demographic transition model. He is also credited with coining the term "zero population growth" although George Stolnitz claimed to have that distinction. Ironically, Davis had several children while espousing limitations on childbearing world-wide. Davis also published an influential article with Wilbert E. Moore entitled "Some Principles of Stratification," which was a very influential functionalist account of the reasons for social inequality. Davis and Moore synthesize Durkheim and Parsons to argue for the "functional necessity" of some positions over others: those that are highest paid go to the most deserving individuals; at the same time, the differential rewards motivates individuals to work to fill positions they might otherwise not. Thus, from this perspective, illness is a deviant state because it means that the individual may not be able to fill their role. Sociologists see this article as a paradigmatic case of functionalist logic, and indeed, Davis came to be a leading figure in this school of sociology.