Amitai Etzioni, Influential Sociologist, Dies at 94
June 2, 2023
Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist who helped develop and popularize communitarianism—a centrist philosophy that asks people to care less about their own rights and more about the common good—has died at age 94. In one of his many articles in Issues, he explores how communitarianism seeks a “third way” for navigating between speedy and slower economic growth and how science and technology influence both dimensions. “I see great merit,” he writes, “in shifting the focus of our actions from seeking ever-greater wealth to investing more of our time and resources in social lives, public action, and spiritual and intellectual activities—in communitarian pursuits.”