From the Neighbourhood to the System
Sociology became an academic profession in the United States in two distinct waves.
Chicago led the first wave. Albion Small founded the department in 1892 and launched the American Journal of Sociology in 1895.
The city was a living laboratory. Its population leapt from 30,000 in 1850 to over a million by 1890.
Key figures outside the formal department established foundational methods:
- Jane Addams founded Hull House, mapping neighbourhood poverty street by street.
- W. E. B. Du Bois published The Philadelphia Negro in 1899 using systematic surveys.
The Chicago department generated major theoretical landmarks:
- Thomas and Znaniecki traced migration in The Polish Peasant in Europe and America.
- The Thomas theorem showed that perceived situations have real consequences.
- Robert Park, working with Park and Burgess, treated urban life as an ecosystem.
- Burgess introduced the concentric zone model of expanding urban rings.
| Chicago sociology | Parsonian sociology | |
|---|---|---|
| Scale of theory | Concepts built up from cases | One general theory of social systems |
| Typical method | Fieldwork, life histories, mapping | Conceptual analysis and classification |
| Typical object | A neighbourhood, a trade, a gang | The social system as such |
| Where the researcher stands | In the setting | Above it |
In the mid-twentieth century, theoretical gravity shifted east.
Talcott Parsons developed functionalism and the AGIL scheme. Parsons argued that all social systems must satisfy four basic functional requirements.
Robert Merton advocated theories of the middle range instead. Merton separated manifest functions from hidden latent functions.
In 1959, C. Wright Mills attacked this consensus. Mills argued that grand theory ignored historical conflict and urgent social issues.
Common pitfall: treating Chicago sociology as purely qualitative work. Researchers combined field ethnography with statistical mapping and census rates.