Paul Lazarsfeld as Institutional Inventor

Abstract

This article reviews the various research institutions that Paul Lazarsfeld founded, and the work done there by himself and by his colleagues. Special emphasis is put on the Columbia Bureau of Applied Social Research. Starting with radio research, the Bureau later shifted its interest to personal influence studies. In the methodological realm, panel studies, snowball sampling, mathematical modeling, and many more contributed to the progress of social science. The Bureau's work under the guidance of Lazarsfeld is shown to have grown from an interplay of methodological or theoretical needs, of funds, of concrete subjects for study, and finally of findings that in turn create new methodological or theoretical needs. The article concludes by reviewing what might have become of the Columbia Bureau had circumstances been different.