ABSTRACT
The University of Chicago’s department of sociology is rightly world-famous for the role it has played in the history of sociology; much has been written about it. This chapter argues that the department’s reputation has been in many ways misleading, and has reflected factors other than the real course of its historical development. The image of the postwar Chicago department as committed to qualitative method, especially participant observation, refers particularly to its cohort of graduate students, including among many others Erving Goffman and Howard Becker. The earlier Chicago School is seen as pioneering in the use of systematic empirical data, opening up new research topics, introducing new methods of data collection such as participant observation, and especially emphasizing the importance of research drawing on firsthand acquaintance with social life. Concerning prostitution, much employment stemmed from the prominent citizens’ Chicago Vice Commission and Committee of Fifteen.
