Park’s Notion of Collective Behavior: A Radical Interactionist’s Critique

If American sociologists born during the twentieth century were polled concerning who they thought was the Chicago School’s leader during its halcyon years of 1918–1934, Robert Park would win hands down. ¹ Although Park never served as the departmental chair, he wore many other important hats in his department and university. ² Among other things, he served as the founding editor for the University of Chicago’s prestigious sociology series, he played a big part in securing funds from private foundations for sociological research, and he inspired or supervised a large amount of the graduate student research that these foundations supported and the university’s press later published. ³ Thus, it would be fair to say that he was the spark plug or main driving force behind the department’s research engine during most of the nearly twenty years he taught there, which accounted largely for its worldwide fame. ⁴