The Chicago of Jane Addams and Ernest Burgess
The Chicago of Jane Addams and Ernest Burgess
Same City, Different Visions
Jane Addams was one of Chicago’s most prominent citizens and the most famous American woman of the Progressive Era. University of Chicago sociologists Ernest Burgess and Robert Park collaborated on urban research throughout the 1920s and their 1925 edited volume, The City, became the bible of the Chicago school of urban sociology. This chapter explores the different visions of Chicago held by participants in the American settlement house movement, epitomized by Addams, and members of the Chicago school of urban sociology, as represented by Burgess. Settlement house workers and sociologists documented social problems associated with rapid industrialization, yet they had different priorities. The urban sociologists saw themselves as academic theorists; settlement house residents considered themselves activists. Where Burgess saw social breakdown, Addams saw community strengths. Because they had minimal interaction, their respective visions of the city barely touched. Sociological theory and practice could have converged in Chicago during the 1920s but the historical moment was lost. The two became estranged and social work became a mostly separate and less academically prestigious profession.
Keywords: Chicago school, urban sociology, sociologists, settlement house movement, Jane Addams, Robert Park, Ernest Burgess, social work
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