Een eeuw sociologisch kijken

Samenvatting

Influences on the author's personal professional development are surveyed, focusing on those that fit the notion of a sociological perspective based on (1) the acknowledgment of a discrepancy between what people say and what they do, and (2) the acknowledgment that people's observations are partially defined by their social environment and position. Aside from artists who incorporate sociological insights (eg, James Joyce), Erving Goffman is deemed the sociologist who realized the sociological perspective best; his nontraditional treatment of somewhat whimsical subject choices (eg, Freudian slips or talking to oneself) is described, and the inspirational character of his work is pointed out. The early-20th-century Chicago school is mentioned as the second main influence; Robert E. Park's (1925) manifesto for urban ethnography and William I. Thomas's study of Polish immigrants in Chicago, IL, are cited as its most important contributions. 17 References. S. Paul