ABSTRACT
Edward Shils and Ernest Burgess have pointed to the rigorous research programme developed at Chicago, combined with the graduate programme that emphasized empirical investigation, as a major influence on the direction of the discipline. The general consensus is that Chicago was the dominant force in American sociology up to 1935. Chicago was the centre of American sociology during the latter’s institutionalization and professionalization. The work of many sociologists at the University of Chicago demonstrates its continued centrality and influence. Many have suggested that the empirical focus of Chicago sociology can be linked to the influence of pragmatism. Although the pragmatist impulse in American sociology was initially manifested in an empirical approach that was grounded in reformist efforts at creating the ‘good’ society, there was a parallel movement toward, and legitimation of, methodological approaches to doing sociology that were objective and scientific.
