Professor Philip Abrams 1933-1981 Philip Abrams was Professor of Sociology at the Durham University from 1971 until his untimely death in 1981.
BELOW: Philip Abrams.
Page 14 | EARLY YEARS
Philip took a first in both parts of the Cambridge History Tripos, and after six years as a research student and research fellow at Peterhouse, was awarded a PhD in 1961 for his study of John Locke as a Conservative. Three years later, he published a critical evaluation of Locke, and it seemed at the time as if he was set for a career as a promising historian. However, during these early years, Philip developed a keen interest in Sociology, and in particular Political Sociology, and following his time at Peterhouse, his studies in this area took him to the London School of Economics, where he worked as an Assistant Lecturer in Sociology. He then returned to Cambridge in 1962 as a Sociology lecturer in Economics and Politics. He played a major role there in establishing a new Social and Political Sciences Tripos in the face of much opposition, and also published papers on a wide variety of topics,
including Political Sociology, Popular Culture, Military Sociology and the History of Social Research in Britain. At Durham, his varied range of interests was clearly evident through the huge amount of research which he undertook. He was closely involved with the Home Office and the Benwell Community Development project, and directed research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Memorial Trust in both Family Sociology (Communes, Sociology and Society) and the Social Policy of Community Care. His final work concerned patterns of neighbourhood care in the community and was funded and supported by the Department of Health and Social Security and the Social Science Research Council. He served as Editor of the Social Science Research Council from 1976 onwards and was also an active player within the British Sociological