Ricerc@Sapienza

100 years after its publication, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America can be remembered for the attempt to merge different perspectives and overcome the dichotomies. However, it cannot be denied that it is also a controversial work: indeed, beyond the intentions of the authors pronounced in the introduction and methodological note, the integration between theory and research is not so fluid. Our hypothesis is that these limits can be traced back to an intrinsic tension that crosses the whole work and also the Chicago School: the tension between emic and etic.

It is typically believed by students of sociology that the Chicago School invented the participant observation method, thereby giving rise to a new, participatory way to carryout research based on the involvement of social actors. According to some authors, however, it is simply a myth to associate the Chicago School with the foundation of the participatory approach, whereas according to others this connection represents the truth. This paper seeks to resolve this issue through critical

questo contributo, l’autore ricorre alla fortunata idea della Mixed Methods Research per esplorare quali possibilità la ricerca sociale abbia di uscire dalle pratiche di dominio del paradigma scissorio. Negli anni successivi alla golden age della sociologia empirica, si è infatti coltivata una tensione alla delimitazione dei confini tra approcci, rivendicandone di volta in volta l’autonomia e la superiorità metodologica.