William Foote Whyte was an American sociologist, born in 1914, best known for his ethnographic study Street Corner Society, published in 1943, for which he lived for four years as a participant observer in an Italian American neighborhood of Boston's North End while a Junior Fellow at Harvard University, documenting the social structure of a street-corner gang and its social world. The book became a foundational text in urban sociology and in the method of sustained participant observation itself. He later joined Cornell University in 1948, where he shifted his research toward industrial sociology and workers' cooperatives, studying labor relations and worker ownership models in Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala and Spain. He served as president of the American Sociological Association in 1981. He died in 2000.
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Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Death DateSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account Nationality / CultureSourced to the subject's own account Defining ContributionSourced to the subject's own accountA proponent of participant observation who lived for four years in an Italian community in Boston while a Junior Fellow at Harvard, researching the social relations of street gangs in Boston's North End; the resulting book, Street Corner Society, became a foundational text of urban sociology and of sustained participant observation as a method. 1 Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own account Connections
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Source William Foote Whyte (Wikipedia)
Source William Foote Whyte (Wikipedia)
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Source William Foote Whyte (Wikipedia)Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 3Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
William Foote Whyte (June 27, 1914 – July 16, 2000) was an American sociologist chiefly known for his ethnographic study in urban sociology, Street Corner Society.
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1. William Foote Whyte (Wikipedia)
Wikipedialead sentence
William Foote Whyte (June 27, 1914 - July 16, 2000) was an American sociologist chiefly known for his ethnographic study in urban sociology, Street Corner Society.
Early life section
Street Corner Society was published by the University of Chicago Press in 1943.
lead paragraph, second sentence
A proponent of participant observation, he lived for four years in an Italian community in Boston while a Junior Fellow at Harvard researching social relations of street gangs in Boston's North End.
Associated With: Harvard University, Article text
A proponent of participant observation, he lived for four years in an Italian community in Boston while a Junior Fellow at Harvard researching social relations of street gangs in Boston's North End. == Early life == Whyte, from an upper-middle-class background, showed an early interest in writing, economics and social reform.
Associated With: University of Chicago, Article text
Rehabilitation was only partially successful; Whyte walked with a cane for the rest of his life, and used two arm crutches in his later years. == Professional career == He briefly returned to the University of Chicago in 1944, then joined the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University in 1948, remaining at Cornell for the remainder of his career.
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