Paul (Felix) Lazarsfeld - Bibliography

Sociologist, born in Vienna, Austria. He studied mathematics, law, and social psychology at the University of Vienna, where he established a social psychology research centre before emigrating to the USA (1933). At Columbia University (1940–69) he founded the Bureau of Applied Social Research (1945), and later taught at the University of Pittsburgh (1970–6). A quantitative methodologist, he was an early researcher of the listening habits of radio audiences and of American popular culture. He became a leading authority on the mass media and voting patterns and the latter work formed the basis of modern voting projection techniques. He devised Latent Structure Analysis, a mathematical technique used in sociological analysis. His books include several regarded as classics, including The Unemployed of Marienthal (1933), The People's Choice (1944), and Voting (1954).

Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (1901-1976) was one of the major figures in 20th century American Sociology. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau for Applied Social Research, he exerted a tremendous influence over the techniques and the organization of research.

Lazarsfeld was born in Vienna, where he attended schools, eventually receiving a doctorate in mathematics (his doctoral dissertation dealt with mathematical aspects of Einstein's gravitational theory). He came to sociology through his expertise in mathematics and quantitative methods, participating in several early quantitative studies, including what was possibly the first scientific survey of radio listeners, in 1930-31.

Lazarsfeld came to America shortly thereafter, securing an appointment at the University of Newark (now the Newark campus of Rutgers University) as head of a new research center based upon the institutional structures he had created in Europe. Under "Administrative Research," as he called his framework, a large, expert staff worked at a research center, deploying a battery of social-scientific investigative methods--mass market surveys, statistical analysis of data, focus group work, etc.--to solve specific problems for specific clients. Funding came not only from the university, but also from commercial clients who contracted out research projects.

While at Newark, Lazarsfeld was appointed head of the Radio Project, which was later moved to Columbia. There, it grew into the acclaimed Bureau for Social Research where he spent the rest of his career. Index formations and qualitative mathematics were subjects taught by Lazarsfeld and are important components of the GT method according to Glaser.

Lazarsfeld died in 1976.

Bibliography

Hans Zeisel, "The Vienna Years," in Qualitative and Quantitative Social Research: Papers in honor of Paul F. "An Episode in the History of Social Research: A Memoir." Lazarsfeld's foundation of social research";