Paul Lazarsfeld and Applied Social Research: Invention of the University Applied Social Research Institute

1979 ◽  
Vol 3 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen H. Barton
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Applied Social Research ◽  
Social Research Institute ◽  
The University ◽  
Research Institute

Paul Lazarsfeld and Applied Social Research: Invention of the University Applied Social Research Institute

1979 ◽  
Vol 3 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 4-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen H. Barton
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Activist ◽  
New Methods ◽  
The World ◽  
Applied Social Research ◽  
Social Research Institute ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The University ◽  
The Unemployed

The rise and fall of the Bureau of Applied Social Research, and the life of its founder and mentor, Paul Lazarsfeld should ideally be presented as a drama by Brecht, accompanied by the dissonant and jazzy music of pre-Nazi Central Europe, and its depression-time equivalent in the United States (from “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” to “Happy Days are Here Again!”).The concept of the university applied social research organization (all the adjectives are necessary) was born in the mind of a social activist student in the intellectual hothouse of Vienna between the World Wars. He wanted new methods of research to help bring radical social change; he had to start by studying soap-buying. He created a penniless research center in a near-bankrupt society, and found his friends jobs studying the unemployed.

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