Chicago school (sociology)

In sociology, the Chicago School refers to the first major attempt to study the urban environment by combined efforts of theory and ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago. While involving scholars at several Chicago area universities, the term is often used interchangably to refer to the University of Chicago's sociology deparment - the world's oldest and most prestigous.

The major researchers in this school included William I. Thomas, Florian Znaniecki, Robert E. Park, Louis Wirth, Ernest Burgess, Everett Hughes, and Robert McKenzie. From the 1920s to the 1930s, urban sociology was almost synonymous with the work of the Chicago school. Sociologists since the mid-20th century have mounted a series of criticisms of the approach, including New Urban Sociology, which emphasizes the political dimension. The controversial views of the Los Angeles School on postmodern urbanism and scholarship are a conscious effort to depart from Chicago school. It is perhaps an indication of the lasting power of the Chicago school.

Books that began this school were Robert Park's The City: Suggestion for the Investigation of Human Behavior in the City Environment from 1915 and the large monograph of Znaniecki and Thomas, Polish peasant in Europe and America.

For an overview of the history of the Chicago School, see web version of an article by Howard S. Becker, himself a member of the "Second Chicago School."

Becker article