The Street Corner Society

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The Street Corner Society: The social structure of an Italian neighborhood (in the original title: Street Corner Society ) is a sociological case study publishedin 1943 by William Foote Whyte . It is considered a masterpiece of field research and the sociological equivalent of "Argonauts of the Western Pacific" by Bronisław Malinowski .

Whyte spent the late 1930s in the North End district of Boston , which at the time was largely populated by first and second generation Italian immigrants. The area was considered potentially unsafe and crime was pervasive. The Italians were widely seen as possible allies of the fascist regime under Benito Mussolini . Whyte lived in the North End for three and a half years, including 18 months with an Italian family.

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"The Street Corner Society" describes the situation of different groups and communities in the North End using the example of the Paesani - people who immigrated from the Italian city of the same name.

The first part of the book describes the structure and organization of the gangs in the district. Whyte differentiated between corner boys and college boys , with the life of the first group taking place on certain street corners and pubs. In contrast, the college boys were more interested in their own social careers and sought a good education. The second part of the book describes the connections between the social fabric, politics and gangsterism in the neighborhood.

expenditure

  • William Foote Whyte: Street corner society. The social structure of an Italian slum , Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1943 (2nd edition 1955; 3rd edition 1981, ISBN 0226895424 ; 4th edition 1993, ISBN 0226895440 ).
    • William Foote Whyte: The Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Quarter , Berlin / New York: de Gruyter 1996, ISBN 3-11012-259-6
    • Selected sections in: Daniela Klimke, Aldo Legnaro (eds.), Kriminologische Grundlagentexte , Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-06503-4 , pp. 282–289.

literature

  • Rolf Lindner , William Foote Whyte. Street Corner Society . In: Dirk Kaesler and Ludgera Vogt (eds.), Major works in sociology . Kröner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 978-3-520-39601-3 , pp. 464-468.
  • Rolf Lindner: Walks on the wild side. A history of urban research , Frankfurt am Main 2004.
  • Oscar Andersson: William Foote Whyte, Street Corner Society and social organization , in: Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences , Vol. 50 (1), 2014, pp. 79-103, ( online version, PDF , accessed 8 November 2014)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Lindner : Walks on the wild side. A history of urban research , Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 151.