Donald Pierson and the Sociological School of Chicago in Brazil: urban studies in the city of SãoPaulo (1935-1950)

Abstract

This paper is an overview of the influence of Donald Pierson, formed in the Sociological School of Chicago, which had more repercussion on urban research in Brazil in the 1930s and 1950s, both within Sociology and Anthropology, in the city of SãoPaulo. Urban research in Brazil - both sociological and anthropological - had theoretical references that left their marks on the works of that time. According to my argument, regarding the scientific fields of anthropology and urban Sociology in Brazil, one of the theoretical trends in a certain historical and theoretical context was the Sociological School of Chicago. Revisiting pioneer urban studies in SãoPaulo could assert the influence of the School of Chicago. In spite of being isolated studies, they have strongly stressed properly urban issues. It would be risky to define them these days as Urban Sociology in its own right, in SãoPaulo. The reason for bringing them up is to demonstrate that they really represented antecedents to urban studies in Brazil between 1935-1950. Therefore, I can say that the sociology of the School of Chicago had its impact on three fields in Brazil: a) racial relations (blacks, whites, and immigrants); b) community studies (small rural towns); and c) studies in the city (especially in Sao Paulo). Therefore, I think of the city of Sao Paulo as a scenario in general terms, as an agenda for institutional research in 1935-1950. Among the few and modest sociology studies having the city of Sao Paulo as their object, an ethnography of the city or urban ethnography was conducted that was different from classic studies on communities or small rural towns. Initially, we have eight works published mainly as journal articles, and their research object was some neighborhoods in Sao Paulo or other cities. The main feature of the article is the extensive bibliography found and presented at the end of the text, about the impact of the Scholl of Chicago and its repercussion in Brazil.