ABSTRACT
Gunnar and Alva Myrdal, Swedish social scientists and policy reformers, made several journeys to the US which were to have a major impact on their intellectual and political activities, and ultimately on the development of welfare studies as a core domain within sociology before and during World War II. This chapter presents the impact of their first encounters with sociological work associated with the early Chicago School, most notably that of W. I. and Dorothy Swaine Thomas and W. I. Ogburn. Developments in comparative social indicators, impact assessments, participatory research and the use of new IT technology, has now put accessible social research evidence in the public domain as never before. The success of applied sociological research made the governments no longer reasonably claim ignorance of their breach when faced with detailed evidence of it, nor of the need for state intervention in the process of redistributing opportunities for greater social decency for all.
