In the early days Department of Sociology, Yanjing University, was mainly staffed with American teachers and the objectives of training, programs of courses and textbooks were thickly characteristic of the West. 燕京大学社会学系成立之初以美籍教师为主体,培养目标、课程设置、教材等都有着浓厚的西方特征。
John Bellamy Foster, the most eminent professor of the Department of Sociology, University of Oregon in the United States adhering to the basic spirit of Marxism in a new era under the conditions of the relationship between man and nature, society and nature interpretation. 美国的俄勒冈大学社会学系最为杰出的教授约翰·贝拉米·福斯特秉承了马克思主义的基本精神,对人与自然之间的关系在新的历史条件下作了新的解读。