A Forgotten Figure

Hans L. Zetterberg at Columbia and the Transfer of Knowledge Between the United States and Sweden

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9601009
AutoresPaolo Velásquez (0000-0001-5525-468X, Umeå University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen53
Número3
Páginas341-363
Fecha de publicación2022-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe American Sociologist (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-1232 • E-ISSN: 1936-4784
EditorialSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12108-022-09531-6
OpenAlexW4220691123
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas10

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a biographical sketch of the late Hans L. Zetterberg and a historical background to a translation of an essay based on a lecture given by Zetterberg in Stockholm in 1995. In it, he recounts his time at the Department of Sociology at Columbia University in the years 1953–1964. This essay is full of insights into an inspiring and formative period for Zetterberg in the United States, particularly in the stimulating milieu that was Columbia, at this time the center of American sociology led by Robert K. Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld. In the introduction to this translated essay, I give a brief overview of the establishment of sociology as a discipline in Sweden, and the transfer of knowledge between the United States and Sweden (and Europe, more broadly), embodied in Hans Zetterberg. In the post-WWII years, American sociology, which had a strong positivistic imprint, played an important role in shaping the beginnings of Swedish sociology. However, the transfer of knowledge went both ways, with Zetterberg, a semi-central and often neglected figure, being both a significant contributor to sociology at Columbia in its period of greatest prominence, and in his native Sweden

Aesthetics · Columbia university · History of sociology · Media studies · Period (music · Political science · Positivism · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of knowledge · World War II · Anthropology · Classics · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · History · Law · Philosophy · Social and Cultural Dynamics