The Tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology

A reassessment of the distinctive features of the Chicago School, its contributions in the theoretical and methodological fields, and its influence on the growth of sociology throughout the world, and in American in particular. The text pays particular attention to the eclectic nature of the research methods used by Chicago sociologists as they sought to integrate subjective and objective aspects of human life. It demonstrates that this eclecticism formed an integral part of their theories, but also emphasizes that empirical observation, too, was important, although not as an end in itself. The Chicago School developed a profusion of scoiological theories in many areas of inquiry, and never opted for one particular approach. The various essays in this work seek to make it clear that the school made a decisive contribution to the development of qualitative and quantitative techniques.