Venster op het buitenland. Verenigde Staten van Amerika

Samenvatting

The US has done more for the development of sociology in the past 15 years than any other country. This is due to its vast territory, the great number of sociologists there, and the huge variety of sociological activities which were necessitated by WWII. A new object for the expression of their own sociological and ideological ideas was found in the 'minority problem', a problem that became acute especially during the war. Some other branches of sociology, which especially after WWII, became of major importance, had already been looked into by pre-WWII investigators. Roethlisberger, Elton Mayo and T. N. Whitehead gave the first impetus to industrial sociology, W. L. Warner and his team stimulated a fresh approach to the study of social stratification. Several branches of sociology in post-WWII US are distinguished; the functionalists (T. Parsons, R. K. Merton), the sociometrists (headed by Moreno), the branch of communication reseach (P. F. Lazarsfeld, B. Berelson), the mathematical sociologists (Stuart Dodd), the action-research sociologists and social-psychologists, following the road of group-dynamics (Morton Deutsch, Marie Jahoda, Kurt Lewin), and finally the applied sociologists (E. D. Chapple, C. M. Arensberg). Admiration for this brisk development does not prevent the European sociologists from venting their criticisms at their US colleagues. These criticisms are concerned with the absence of sufficient philosophical reflection, too much confidence in the exp, the failure of explicitly discussing the philosophical and epistemological premises, pragmatism, and positivism. H.P.M. Goddijn.