Eshref Shevky

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Eshref Shevky (born February 1893 in Constantinople ; died October 13, 1969 in Altadena ) was a sociologist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Life

Eshref Shevky comes from a Turkish family whose members worked for a long time in the public service of their country. His father was the finance director of the Turkish Navy and later an official of the surveying authority. One uncle served as governor in Syria and one great-uncle was a Treasury officer. Among his siblings was a brother who is considered an early member of the Committee on Unity and Progress and another brother was a social historian and publicist. Both brothers were involved in the decentralization movement ("Organization for Private Initiative and Decentralism") of Prince Sabahaddin , from which the reform of the written Turkish language also emerged. The movement referred to the work of the French social researcher Pierre Guilleaume Fréderic Le Play ; his brother Mahmet Ali Shevky used his methods for studies of experimental sociology at what was then the University of Constantinople. Eshref Shevky grew up in this family environment and his academic training began with fieldwork in these areas.

To continue his further education, Eshref Shevky went to the United States and after his admission to Stanford University worked in the field of experimental medicine, where he earned a Ph. D. for it in 1922 . His interest in connecting theory and practice in field studies began to be renewed here. That is why Eshref Shevky took over the management of the Tewa Basin study project in New Mexico ( United States. Bureau of Indian Affairs . Indian Land Research Unit ).

Between 1935 and 1941 Eshref Shevky headed the Department of Economic Surveys for the Southwest Region in the US Soil Conservation Service (now the Natural Resources Conservation Service ). In the course of this activity he was a temporary member of the inter-ministerial Rio Grande Committee . In 1940 Shevky took part as a technical advisor in the US delegation to the First Inter-American Conference on Indian Life in Pátzcuaro , Mexico , which dealt with the situation of indigenous peoples within American nations and their cultural pluralism. In 1945 he participated as a member of the Pacific Coast Committee on Community Studies in the Social Science Research Council .

Between 1944 and 1949 he laid the foundation stone for his most important scientific life's work. During this time Eshref Shevky worked as a sociologist at the Haynes Foundation, where he designed a method of social research in urban spatial relationships from the perspective of living-world-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles . In the course of this work and with the sociologist Marilyn Williams, an analytical style emerged that was later called sociological urban research or social space analysis. Together they published their methodical approach in the work The social areas of Los Angeles, analysis and typology, published in 1949 . The theoretical approaches and methods worked out in this context were ultimately used internationally in very different cultural contexts.

After being appointed professor in 1950, Eshref Shevky began helping to set up a Middle Eastern studies program at the University of California. In the further progress of this work, he gained increasing international reputation. At his university, he taught in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology and was actively involved in the university process until the end of his life.

Eshref Shevky was married to Elizabeth Shevky.

Selected Works

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e University of California: Eshref Shevky, Anthropology and Sociology: Los Angeles . University of California Los Angeles: In Memoriam, December 1970, at www.texts.cdlib.org (English)
personal data
SURNAME Shevky, Eshref
ALTERNATIVE NAMES February, Eshref (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sociologist and university professor of Turkish origin
DATE OF BIRTH February 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1969
Place of death Altadena