William Foote Whyte

William Foote Whyte (born June 27, 1914 , † July 16, 2000 ) was an important American sociologist . He is considered a pioneer in industrial sociology and was the 72nd president of the American Sociological Association .

William Foote Whyte (1996)

As a pioneer of participant observation , he spent four years of his life in an Italian neighborhood in Boston , USA, to investigate the social context of street gangs in the Boston neighborhood of North End. The result was his best-known work, The Street Corner Society , an ethnographic study of urban society published as a dissertation in 1943. The work is considered a classic example of participatory observation.

Whyte, who grew up in an upper-middle-class academic family, showed an early interest in writing , economics, and social reform . Between 1932 and 1936 he studied in Philadelphia at Swarthmore College. After graduating from The Street Corner Society , he taught for a year at the University of Oklahoma . During this time he fell ill with polio and was then permanently dependent on crutches .

In 1944 he returned to the University of Chicago , and in 1948 he went to the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University , New York - and spent the remainder of his career there. From then on, he dealt with the subject areas of social reform and social change . His favorite research areas included the amalgamations of industrial and agricultural workers in Venezuela , Peru , Guatemala and the Basque Country . He has authored hundreds of scientific articles and 20 books. In 1960 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Fonts (selection)

• The Street Corner Society: The social structure of an Italian neighborhood . Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter 1996. After the 3rd, revised and expanded edition from 1981; first English edition 1943. ISBN 3-11012-259-6 .
  • Excerpts in: Daniela Klimke, Aldo Legnaro (eds.), Kriminologische Grundlagentexte , Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2016, ISBN 978-3-658-06503-4 , pp. 281–289.
• Industry and Society , New York 1946
• Human Relations in the Restaurant Industry , New York 1948
• Pattern for Industrial Peace , New York 1951
• Money and Motivation , New York 1955
• Men at Work , New York 1961
• Organizational Behavior: Theory and Application , Homewood, Illinois 1969
• Organizing for Agricultural Development , New Brunswick, New Jersey 1975
• Pattern for Industrial Peace , New York 1951
• Participant Observer. An autobiography , ILR Press, New York 1994

Web links

• Photos and some links