1st Edition
Lazarsfeld’s Methodology and Its Influence on Postwar Sociology in Europe The Rise of the Columbia Model of Sociology
This book explains how the Columbia model of sociology, which was based on the methodology of P.F. Lazarsfeld, became a dominant sociological school of thought in American and European post-war sociology. Providing an overview of Lazarsfeld's inventions and his methodological, organisational, and institutional innovations, it describes the means by which a particular model of sociology was gradually adopted in departments headed by Lazarsfeld and in the work of his successors. With attention to the use by Lazarsfeld of methodological texts published by prestigious publishing houses in his research and teaching, his activity in international organisations – including the UN – his collaboration with figures such as Robert K. Merton and Raymond Boudon, and his attempts to show how the roots of his empirical research methodology lay in the work of early European scholars, this volume shows how a particular sociological paradigm came to prevail over others for more than a decade. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in the history of the discipline and questions of research methodology.
Contents
Acknowledgement
Introduction
Chapter 1: Lazarsfeld’s Methodological Innovations
Chapter 2: Lazarsfeld’s ‘Training Projects’ and His Methodological Publications – the Role of the PPAT Project (1948–1955)
Chapter 3: Lazarsfeld in Norway: The Story of the Active Promotion of Lazarsfeld’s Methodology in Norway (1947–1955)
Chapter 4: Lazarsfeld in Poland: Lazarsfeld’s Activities and Influence in Postwar Poland (1958–1970)
Chapter 5: Lazarsfeld in Austria: Lazarsfeld’s Promotion of Empirical Sociology in Postwar Austria (1958–1976)
Chapter 6: Lazarsfeld in France: How Empirical Social Research Gained Ascendancy in Postwar France (1948–1976)
Chapter 7: Lazarsfeld and UNESCO: Lazarsfeld’s European Influence with the Support of UNESCO (1948–1973)
Chapter 8: Lazarsfeld in the Czech Part of Czechoslovakia – A Specific Example of the Advancement of the Lazarsfeldian Methodology of Empirical Social Research (1965–1973)
Chapter 9: Lazarsfeld’s Contributions to the History of Empirical Social Research (1959–1973)
Conclusion
Index
Biography
Hynek Jeřábek is Professor at the Institute of Sociological Studies at Charles University, Czech Republic.
