Robert E. Park
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Robert Ezra Park (February 14, 1864 – February 7, 1944) was an American urban sociologist who is considered to be one of the most influential figures in early U.S. sociology. Park was a pioneer in the field of
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
, changing it from a passive philosophical discipline to an active discipline rooted in the study of human behavior. He made significant contributions to the study of urban communities, race relations and the development of empirically grounded research methods, most notably participant observation in the field of
criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and s ...
. From 1905 to 1914, Park worked with
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
at the
Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...
. After Tuskegee, he taught at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
from 1914 to 1933, where he played a leading role in the development of the Chicago School of sociology. Park is noted for his work in
human ecology Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. The philosophy and study of human ecology has a diffuse history with advancements in ecolog ...
,
race relations Race relations is a sociological concept that emerged in Chicago in connection with the work of sociologist Robert E. Park and the Chicago race riot of 1919. Race relations designates a paradigm or field in sociology and a legal concept in th ...
,
human migration Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another with intentions of settling, permanently or temporarily, at a new location (geographic region). The movement often occurs over long distances and from one country to another (ex ...
, cultural
assimilation Assimilation may refer to: Culture * Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs ** Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the prog ...
,
social movements A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and ma ...
, and
social disorganization In sociology, the social disorganization theory is a theory developed by the Chicago School, related to ecological theories. The theory directly links crime rates to neighbourhood ecological characteristics; a core principle of social disorgan ...
.


Biography


Childhood and early life

Robert E. Park was born in Harveyville,
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of ...
on February 14, 1864 to parents Hiram Asa Park and Theodosia Warner Park. Immediately following his birth, the Park family moved to Red Wing, Minnesota, where he grew up. Park lived in Red Wing for his first eighteen years. Referred to as the "Middle Boarder" by American novelist Hamlin Garland, Red Wing was a relatively undeveloped and unsettled area with new- but few- towns. The one significant event from his youth recalled by Park was an encounter with bandit
Jesse James Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the " Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained st ...
with whom Park provided with directions to a local blacksmith's shop. Park has been described as an "awkward, sentimental and romantic boy" whose character led him to develop an interest in writing.Frazier, P. & Gaziano, Cecilie. (1979). Robert Ezra Park: His Theory of News, Public Opinion and Social Control. Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs. 64. He was not considered a promising student, but he liked learning about the people in his town and their ancestries, a niche which would prove to be useful throughout his life. Park graduated high school in 1882—finishing tenth overall in a class of thirteen. Park was interested in attending college after high school, but his father did not allow him to do so, ironically because he felt his son was not "study material." As a result, Robert ran away from home and found a job working on a railroad. Park's love of writing and concern for social issues, especially issues related to race in cities, led him to become a journalist. Franklin Ford and Park made plans for a newspaper, ''Thought News'', which would report public opinion. Although it was never published, Park still pursued a career as a journalist. From 1887 to 1898, Park worked as a journalist in
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, and
Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...
. Park's experience as a reporter led him to study the social function of the newspaper, "not as an organ of opinion, but as a record of current events". Towards the end of his newspaper career, Park became disenchanted with the idea that newspaper reporting could alone solved social issues. As a reporter Park learned a great deal about urban communities, which inspired his later sociological endeavors in
race relations Race relations is a sociological concept that emerged in Chicago in connection with the work of sociologist Robert E. Park and the Chicago race riot of 1919. Race relations designates a paradigm or field in sociology and a legal concept in th ...
. In 1894, Park married Clara Cahill, the daughter of a wealthy Michigan family and had four children: Edward, Theodosia, Margaret and Robert.


Education

Park first attended the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
where he excelled in his courses. Because of his success at the University of Minnesota, his father offered to invest in furthering Robert's education at the prestigious
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. Upon entering the University of Michigan, Park decided to transition from studying science to instead studying
philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...
. His professor Calvin Thomas exerted a great influence on him. He challenged him to expand his mind and deeply pursue the concepts presented in his courses.
John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the fi ...
also had a very strong influence on Park during his college year. After Park took Dewey's course on logic his sophomore year of college, he decided to again shift his major, this time to
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
. Park stated that his interest in going to college has originally been purely practical, originally intending to pursue engineering, but this mindset shifted when he began taking courses which truly intrigued him. He was endlessly fascinated by the notion of exploring the realm of the dubious and unknown rather than focusing on the secure knowledge offered to him in his previous years of education. Upon becoming a student of philosophy Park became, "presently possessed with a devouring curiosity to know more about the world and all that men had thought and done". His future work in the field of sociology, which primary focused on human's behavior in different environments, proves that this exploratory mindset stuck with him for the rest of his life. At the University of Michigan Park was involved in the school newspaper, ''The Argonaut.'' He held a position of associate editor his junior year and managing editor his senior year. He wrote a satirical piece titled, "A Misapprehension, A Realistic Tale à la Henry James". The connections he formed at ''The Argonaut'' would prove helpful in later landing him a job as a reporter at Minneapolis newspaper. Park graduated from the University of Michigan (
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
) in 1887 and attended
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
. He earned an MA from Harvard in 1899. After graduating, he went to Germany to study at Friedrich Wilhelm University. He studied Philosophy and Sociology in 1899–1900 with
Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approac ...
in Berlin. The three courses Park took with Simmel constituted the majority of his sociological training and Park proceeded to adopt Simmel's belief that modernity would express itself most tangibly in the city. Simmel's work the '' Philosophy of Money'' and relative shorter essays greatly influenced Park's future writing. In Berlin, Park read a book on the logics of social sciences by Russian author Bogdan A. Kistyakovski, who studied under philosopher Wilhelm Windelband. It was this reading that inspired Park to spend a semester at the
University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...
(1900), and then undergo his PhD in Philosophy in 1903 in
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...
under
Wilhelm Windelband Wilhelm Windelband (; ; 11 May 1848 – 22 October 1915) was a German philosopher of the Baden School. Biography Windelband was born the son of a Prussian official in Potsdam. He studied at Jena, Berlin, and Göttingen. Philosophical work Win ...
and Alfred Hettner with a dissertation titled ''Masse und Publikum. Eine methodologische und soziologische Untersuchung,'' which translates to'':'' ''Crowd and Public: A methodological and sociological study.'' Park then traveled to Germany to study at the University of Berlin. He enrolled for one semester at the University of Strasbourg, and studied for a few years at the University of Heidelberg alongside
Georg Simmel Georg Simmel (; ; 1 March 1858 – 26 September 1918) was a German sociologist, philosopher, and critic. Simmel was influential in the field of sociology. Simmel was one of the first generation of German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approac ...
, earning his PhD in 1904.


Professional life

From 1887-1898, Parks worked as a journalist in Minneapolis, Detroit, Denver, New York, and Chicago until attending Harvard in 1898. He worked in various journalistic capacities, such as being a police reporter, general reporter, and feature writer and city newspaper editor and wrote muckraking stories and investigative pieces and articles that called for techniques of "scientific reporting," which he later realized was similar to survey research. In 1904, Park began teaching Philosophy at Harvard as an assistant professor. Park taught there for two years until celebrated educator and author,
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
, invited him to the
Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...
to work on racial issues in the southern United States. Park was offered a position by the Congo Reform Association, but ended up subsequently working for Washington at Tuskegee. Park and Washington originally met through their mutual interest in helping Africans through the Congo Reform Association of which Park was secretary and Washington was vice president. Over the next seven years, Park worked for Washington by doing field research and taking courses. In 1910, Park traveled to Europe to compare US poverty to European poverty. Shortly after the trip, Washington, with the help of Park, published ''The Man Farthest Down'' (1913). This publication highlights Parker and Washington's journey to explore Europe in the hopes of finding the man "the farthest down" in order to explore these people were choosing to emigrate and the likeliness of a future change in positions. This led them on a six-week journey through the British Isles, France, Italy, Poland, Denmark, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the Tuskegee Institute, Park joined the Department of Sociology at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in 1914, first as a lecturer (until 1923), then as a full professor until his retirement in 1933. During his time in Chicago, he continued to study and teach
human ecology Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. The philosophy and study of human ecology has a diffuse history with advancements in ecolog ...
and race relations. In 1914, Park taught his first course in the Sociology and Anthropology department. The course was titled ''The Negro in America'' and it was, "Directed especially to the effects, in slavery and freedom, of the white and black race, an attempt will be made to characterize the nature of the present tensions and tendencies and to estimate the character of the changes which race relations are likely to bring about in the American system". This class was important from a historical perspective because it may have been the first course ever offered at a predominantly white institution that focused exclusively on black Americans. This set a precedent for classes with similar focuses to come. During Park's time at the University of Chicago, its sociology department began to use the city that surrounded it as a sort of research laboratory. His work, together with that of his Chicago colleagues, such as Ernest Burgess, Homer Hoyt, and
Louis Wirth Louis Wirth (August 28, 1897 – May 3, 1952) was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology. His interests included city life, minority group behavior, and mass media, and he is recognised as one of the leading urban ...
– developed into an approach to
urban sociology Urban sociology is the sociological study of life and human interaction in metropolitan areas. It is a normative discipline of sociology seeking to study the structures, environmental processes, changes and problems of an urban area and by doin ...
that became known as the Chicago School. This would become Park's legacy. After leaving the University of Chicago, Park moved to
Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
. He taught at
Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...
until his death in 1944, at age 79. During his lifetime, Park became a well-known figure both within and outside the academic world. At various times from 1925, he was president of the
American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association (ASA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology. Founded in December 1905 as the American Sociological Society at Johns Hopkins University by a group of fif ...
and of the
Chicago Urban League The Chicago Urban League, established in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, is an affiliate of the National Urban League that develops programs and partnerships and engages in advocacy to address the need for employment, entrepreneurship, affordable housin ...
, and he was a member of the
Social Science Research Council The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it today maintains ...
. Park's presidential address for the American Sociological Association was entitled "The Concept of Position in Sociology" and was later published in the ''Proceedings'' of the 1925 Annual Meeting.


Work


Human ecology

Park coined the term
human ecology Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. The philosophy and study of human ecology has a diffuse history with advancements in ecolog ...
, the study of the relationship between
human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
s and their
natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...
,
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
, and
built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ...
s. The term has been described as an attempt to apply the interrelations of human beings a type of analysis previously applied to the interrelations of plants and animals.Park, Robert Ezra. “Human Ecology.” ''American Journal of Sociology'', vol. 42, no. 1, University of Chicago Press, 1936, pp. 1–15, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2768859. Park himself explains human ecology as, "fundamentally an attempt to investigate the processes by which the biotic balance and social equilibrium are disturbed, the transition is made from one relatively stable order to other". Bogardus acknowledges that Park is the father of human ecology, proclaiming, "Not only did he coin the name but he laid out the patterns, offered the earliest exhibit of ecological concepts, defined the major ecological processes and stimulated more advanced students to cultivate the fields of research in ecology than most other sociologists combined." Park found that a key underpinning of his human ecology is the concept of competition. He believed that it is the primary feature of the biotic level of life. He maintained that human beings restricted in some areas when it comes to competition, while in the plant and animal kingdom it is uninhibited. He maintained that human restriction of competition is what allows our modern concept of society to exist. The essential characteristics of competition are 1) a territorially organized population 2) that is more or less completely rooted in the soil it occupies 3) the individual units living in a relationship are living in a mutually dependent relationship, not a symbiotic one. According to Park's papers regarding this topic, "Dominance" and "Succession: An Ecological Concept", ecological competition can be manifest itself through dominance and succession. While at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
, Park continued to strengthen his theory of human ecology. Along with Ernest W. Burgess developed a program of urban research in the sociology department. They also developed a theory of
urban ecology Urban ecology is the scientific study of the relation of living organisms with each other and their surroundings in an urban environment. An urban environment refers to environments dominated by high-density residential and commercial building ...
, which first appeared in their book ''Introduction to the Science of Sociology'' (1922). Using the city of Chicago as their they proposed that cities were environments like those found in nature. Park and Burgess suggested that cities were governed by many of the same forces of
Darwinian evolution Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that ...
that happens in ecosystems. They felt the most significant force was competition. Competition was created by groups fighting for urban resources, like land, which led to a division of urban space into
ecological niches In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for ...
. Within these niches people shared similar social characteristics because they were subject to the same ecological pressure. Competition for land and resources within cities eventually leads to separation of urban space into zones with the more desirable zones imposing higher rent. As residents of a city become more affluent, they move outward from the city center. Park and Burgess refer to this a
succession Succession is the act or process of following in order or sequence. Governance and politics *Order of succession, in politics, the ascension to power by one ruler, official, or monarch after the death, resignation, or removal from office of ...
, a term also used in plant ecology. They predicted that cities would form into five concentric rings with areas of social and physical deterioration concentrated in the center and prosperous areas near the city's edge. This model is known as concentric zone theory, it was first published in ''The City'' (1925).


Race relations

Park spent a great deal of time studying
race relations Race relations is a sociological concept that emerged in Chicago in connection with the work of sociologist Robert E. Park and the Chicago race riot of 1919. Race relations designates a paradigm or field in sociology and a legal concept in th ...
with
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
while at the University of Chicago. Park contributed significantly to the study of race relations, with Everrett Hughes stating that, "Park probably contributed more ideas for analysis of racial relations and cultural contracts than any other modern social scientist." Park worked closely with Booker T. Washington and the
Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...
from 1907 to 1914. While working under Washington, Park's primary interest was the system that had evolved to define Black-White relations in the South. Park said that he learned more about human nature and society while in the South. He says that, "These seven years were for me a sort of prolonged internship during which I gained a clinical and first hand knowledge of a first class social problem . . . t was from Washington thatI gained some adequate notion of how deep-rooted in human history and human nature social institutions were, and how difficult, if not impossible it was, to make fundamental changes in them by mere legislation or by legal artifice of any sort". After leaving the Tuskegee Institute, Park joined the University of Chicago where he developed a theory of assimilation, as it pertained to immigrants in the United States, known as the "race relation cycle". The cycle has four stages: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. The first step is contact followed by competition. Then, after some time, a hierarchical arrangement can prevail – one of accommodation – in which one race was dominant and others dominated. In the end assimilation occurred. Park declared that it is "a cycle of events which tends everywhere to repeat itself" and that it can also be seen in other social processes." He was instrumental in founding the race relations course at Chicago.


Critiques

Park's theory of conflict has been discredited for a number of reasons, and his theories and contributions in sociology have largely been neglected and forgotten over time. In the years following the heyday of the Chicago school, Park's reputation took a downfall, and his idea of "symbolic interactionism" was subsequently pushed aside. Park was frequently called a conservative when it came to his theory of the race relations cycle. Critics of Park misinterpreted his theory of race relations, believing that Park meant to assert that progression through the four stages was inevitable; current discourse debates whether Park meant anything of the sort. Within Park's theory of conflict, race relations exists merely as a specific case of this greater theory. Racial groups, or any other kind of group can remain in the conflict stage indefinitely. Park was further criticized for perceived racist tendencies. Already in his work as an editorial secretary of the Congo Reform Association, Park defended the idea of a noble white civilizing mission to elevate an allegedly savage African population. During his years at the Tuskegee Institute, this nostalgia for European imperialism was complemented by a stereotypical depiction of black peasants in the South as a primitive counterpart of the negative tendencies Park identified in modern city life. These early views on imperialism and race have been called a form of "romantic racism" that strongly influenced his later more elaborated sociological perspectives on the same issues. As already the black Marxist Oliver C. Cox, a student of Park, has warned, this racial essentialism eventually led Park to a mystification of race relations in the Jim Crow era as a natural solution to racial conflict. In his essay ''Education in its relation to the conflict and fusion of cultures'', Park can be quoted:
The Negro is, by natural disposition, neither an intel-lectual nor an idealist, like the Jew; nor a brooding introspective, like the East African; nor a pioneer and frontiersman, like the Anglo-Saxon. He is primarily an artist, loving of life for its sake. His métier is expression rather than action. He is, so to speak the lady among the races.
Park's belief in inherited racial temperaments, though racist, was somewhat offset by his belief in "social inheritance" working in tandem with "biological inheritance". Put simply, he thought that while some races are more predisposed to certain temperaments, a whole person is also made up of their social qualities. Park also supported Franz Boas' conclusion that there was no scientific evidence to indicate that "Blacks were as a group intellectually inferior to Whites". The works of sociologists
Louis Wirth Louis Wirth (August 28, 1897 – May 3, 1952) was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology. His interests included city life, minority group behavior, and mass media, and he is recognised as one of the leading urban ...
and Rose Hum Lee illustrate the downfalls of Park's thinking, specifically in relation to adhering to his views on ethnic groups in America. Park's conclusions that the complete assimilation of Jews, Christians, and Chinese folks have occurred was shown within Wirth and Hum Lee's work to be untrue.


Major works

* ''The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in Europe (with Booker T. Washington)'', 1912 * ''Introduction to the Science of Sociology (with E.W. Burgess)'', 1921 * ''Old World Traits Transplanted: The Early Sociology of Culture'', 1921 * ''The Immigrant Press and Its Control'', 1922 * ''The City: Suggestions for the Study of Human Nature in the Urban Environment'', 1925 *''Proceedings: The Concept of Position in Sociology'' ''Proceedings,'' 1925 * ''The University and the Community of Races'', 1932 * ''Cultural Conflict and the Marginal Man'', 1937 * ''An Outline of the Principles of Sociology'', 1939 * ''American Sociology: The Story of Sociology in the United States through 1950'', 1951 * ''Human Communities: The City and Human Ecology'', 1952 * ''Societies'', 1955


Impact

Park's impact on the field of sociology is palpable yet often goes unrecognized. The majority of the sociologists born in the nineteenth century borrowed and concentrated in other fields and their work was considered sociological after the fact. Park was one such sociologist, with much of his interests originating in philosophy and then evolving into what we consider to be modern sociology when he began to focus on studying Chicago. His work led to the development of the Chicago school (sociology). Park along with fellow Chicago School sociologists Ernest Burgess, William I. Thomas,
George Herbert Mead George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded a ...
, and
Louis Wirth Louis Wirth (August 28, 1897 – May 3, 1952) was an American sociologist and member of the Chicago school of sociology. His interests included city life, minority group behavior, and mass media, and he is recognised as one of the leading urban ...
created a theoretical basis for sociology which emphasized the more methodological approach which we recognize today. The school produced many studies on city life, including ones on Polish immigrants, gangs, and Jewish ghetto life. It has been noted that Park and his students employed a 'moving camera' approach to their studies of urban life, attempting to capture city dwellers in their natural modes of life. The Chicago school of thought regarding
urban ecology Urban ecology is the scientific study of the relation of living organisms with each other and their surroundings in an urban environment. An urban environment refers to environments dominated by high-density residential and commercial building ...
still guides much of the work conducted in this field today. Additionally, Erving Goffman, who is considered to be the most influential sociologist of the twenty-first century, embraced the legacy of Park by adopting more qualitative methods when constructing predictive empirical science in contrast to positivist sociological trends.


Bibliography

*1903: ''Masse und Publikum. Eine methodologische und soziologische Untersuchung'' (Ph.D. thesis) publ. Berlin: Lack & Grunau, 1904 *1912: ''The Man Farthest Down: a Record of Observation and Study in Europe'' with Booker T Washington, New York: Doubleday *1921: ''Introduction to the Science of Sociology'' (with Ernest Burgess) Chicago: University of Chicago Press *1921: ''Old World Traits Transplanted: the Early Sociology of Culture'' with Herbert A Miller, & Kenneth Thompson, New York: Harper & Brothers *1922: ''The Immigrant Press and Its Control'' New York: Harper & Brothers *1925: ''The City: Suggestions for the Study of Human Nature in the Urban Environment'' (with R. D. McKenzie & Ernest Burgess) Chicago: University of Chicago Press *1928: ''Human Migration and the Marginal Man'', American Journal of Sociology 33: 881–893 *1932: ''The University and the Community of Races'' Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press *1932: ''The Pilgrims of Russian-Town The Community of Spiritual Christian Jumpers in America'', by Pauline V. Young Ph.D. with an Introduction by Robert E. Park, Chicago: University of Chicago Press *1937: ''Cultural Conflict and the Marginal Man'' in Everett V Stonequist, ''The Marginal Man,'' Park's Introduction, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons *1939: ''Race relations and the Race Problem; a Definition and an Analysis'' with Edgar Tristram Thompson, Durham, NC: Duke University Press *1939: ''An Outline of the Principles of Sociology'', with Samuel Smith, New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc *1940: ''Essays in Sociology'' with C W M Hart, and Talcott Parsons et al., Toronto: University of Toronto Press *1950: ''Race and Culture'', Glencoe Ill: The Free Press, *1952: ''Human Communities: the City and Human Ecology'' Glencoe, Ill: The Free Press *1955: ''Societies'', Glencoe Ill: The Free Press *1967: ''On Social Control and Collective Behavior,'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, *1969: ''Human Migration and the Marginal Man.'' in ''The Classic Essays on the Culture of Cities''. Ed. Richard Sennett. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1969, pp. 131–142 *1972: ''The Crowd and the Public and Other Essays,'' Heritage of Society *1974: ''The Collected Papers of Robert Ezra Park: Volumes 1,2, & 3.'' Arno Press


See also

*
Social disorganization theory In sociology, the social disorganization theory is a theory developed by the Chicago School, related to ecological theories. The theory directly links crime rates to neighbourhood ecological characteristics; a core principle of social disorgan ...
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Everett Stonequist Everett Verner Stonequist (October 5, 1901 – March 26, 1979) was an American Sociologist perhaps best known for his 1937 book, ''The Marginal Man'' Life & Work Stonequist was born in Worcester, Mass. and received his A.B. degree in History an ...
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Frederic Thrasher Frederic Milton Thrasher (1892–1962) was a sociologist at the University of Chicago. He was a colleague of Robert E. Park and was one of the most prominent members of the Chicago School of Sociology in the 1920s. Thrasher was born in Shelbyv ...
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Notes


Further reading

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External links


An appreciation of Park at the University of Chicago



Review materials for studying Robert Ezra Park


* [https://web.archive.org/web/20141019081747/http://ssr1.uchicago.edu/PRELIMS/Theory/thmisc1.html#PARK Park's ''Cultural Conflict and the Marginal Man'' (1937) at University of Chicago School of Sociology] * * *
Guide to the Robert Ezra Park Collection 1882-1979
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Robert E. American criminologists University of Chicago faculty University of Michigan alumni Harvard University alumni Presidents of the American Sociological Association 1864 births 1944 deaths Human ecologists