Artikel

Het Joodse getto in het licht van de sociologie van Chicago

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Abstract

The Jewish ghetto in the light of the sociology of Chicago - This article deals with the historical background and the sociological context of a remarkable publication from the so-called Chicago-School (1920-1932), namely The Ghetto by Louis Wirth (1897-1952), an outstanding member of this American school of sociology. It stands on its own, but can also be read as an introduction to the summing up of The Ghetto in a following article. The department of sociology at the University of Chicago (1892) was organized by Albion Woodbury Small (1854-1926) and received its theoretical foundations and methods from William Isaac Thomas (1863-1947) and Robert Ezra Park (1864-1944). The methodology of their sociology of the city of Chicago consisted of three components : documentary methods (inside information, biographies, personal histories, human documents, correspondence, newspaper articles), introspective methods (participant observation) and ecological respectively cartographic analysis. These components are reflected in Louis Wirth’s study of the Jewish ghetto in Europe and America, especially in the city of Chicago. After a short biography of Louis Wirth, a Jew who migrated from Germany to America, we succesively deal with the methodology of The Ghetto and the sociological relevance of this study of the adventures of Jews in a big American city. The results of Wirth’s study are also applicable to the structure and functions of other ethnic minorities. The author demonstrates that the ghetto is far more than a local geographical unit with definite material contours. The ghetto is a cultural community that expresses a common heritage and a store of common traditions and sentiments.

How to Cite:

Goddijn, H., (1990) “Het Joodse getto in het licht van de sociologie van Chicago”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 35(3), 219–234. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95047