How the Other Half Lives: The Emancipatory Contributions of the Chicago School of Sociology

This chapter presents a framework for thinking about the (potential) emancipatory effects of different approaches in the social sciences. It utilizes this framework to assess the emancipatory effect of the Chicago School of sociology. They developed an exemplary emancipatory approach to social science by systematically giving voice to marginal perspectives. This contribution was reinforced by their anti-paternalism, which they developed in critical response to the dominant Progressivist approach to social in the United States. Their approach was characterized by an egalitarian of the self, an idea which resonates with Levy and Peart’s idea of analytical egalitarianism. Both generations of the Chicago School of Sociology, first in the 1920’s and then in the 1950’s contributed to emancipation, conceptualized here as the project of a reduction in the privileges of the dominant classes. It is argued that the first generation helped give marginalized and migrant communities voice but did not explicitly challenge the ideal of integration into mainstream American society. The second generation more explicitly challenged what they called the ‘hierarchy of credibility’ and sided with the underdogs in society. It is argued that emancipation, however, requires not merely a challenge of dominant perspectives but also a perspective of how groups with diverging perspectives can peacefully live together.

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