Paul F. Lazarsfeld

Abstract

Paul F. Lazarsfeld (b. 1901–d. 1976) was a highly influential scholar and the founder of social research organizations. Being a professor of sociology (at Columbia University, New York City) for the longest part of his academic career, his intellectual background stemmed from other academic branches: he received a PhD from the University of Vienna, Austria, in 1925 in mathematics, participated in one of the schools of depth psychology created in his hometown by Alfred Adler, and rounded up his psychological expertise under the tutelage of the Bühlers at the University of Vienna, where Lazarsfeld taught (unofficially) statistics. He was active in politics as the leader of the social democratic youth organization and as a speaker in the party’s instructional efforts. Initially a high school (Gymnasium) teacher for mathematics, in 1931 Lazarsfeld founded the Wirtschaftspsychologische Forschungsstelle (roughly: applied market research), probably the first private social research unit in Central Europe. The Forschungsstelle (as the unit was remembered by its former members) executed the first audience study of Austrian radio listeners and became famous finally for the sociography of an unemployed village. In autumn 1933 Lazarsfeld left Austria for a Rockefeller Fellowship, which he spent primarily in New York; he extended the fellowship term until 1935. The political situation in Austria at the time was depressing and the outlook was dim. Lazarsfeld therefore decided to return to New York, where Lazarsfeld’s mentor Robert Lynd was able to offer him minor jobs and his network was extensive enough to consider him for more attractive positions. When the Rockefeller Foundation negotiated a big research grant with Hadley Cantril on the cultural consequences of the radio, this Princeton-based young psychology professor hired Lazarsfeld as the research director. Within a short period of time Lazarsfeld sidelined Cantril and made the Princeton Radio Project to the Office of Radio Research. In 1940 Lazarsfeld was appointed as associate professor for sociology at Columbia University and transferred the Office of Radio Research as an adjunct entity to his new university. Renamed the Bureau of Applied Social Research, it became a model for this kind of research. For nearly three decades the Bureau offered graduate students and postdocs additional expertise and an income. So Lazarsfeld became the mentor of several dozen social scientists who populated the US elite universities. In addition, students from both sides of the Iron Curtain, which divided Europe back then, enjoyed Lazarsfeld’s instructions, mentoring, and connections with funding agencies. During the first years, together with Robert K. Merton, who was hired by Columbia as an assistant professor at the same time as Lazarsfeld and joined him at the Bureau as co-director, Lazarsfeld laid the foundations of communication research, empirically, theoretical, and in particular as a methodologist.