This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Paul F. Lazarsfeld, professor of sociology for 30 years and director of Columbia's Bureau of Applied Social Research, a forerunner of the University's Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP). In honor of this occasion, ISERP is hosting a celebration and conference on Saturday, September 29, from 9 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., at the Italian Academy. Friends, family and former colleagues of Lazarsfeld from around the world will attend this celebration.

The day-long conference, "Theory as measurement and measurement as theory," will recognize and debate Lazarsfeld's contributions to social science and identify issues that confront social science in the next decade.

The Bureau of Applied Social Research was established in 1941 and helped make Columbia a pioneering institution in the social sciences.

"The Bureau of Applied Social Research was one of the major social research organizations in the mid-20th century," said Columbia Provost Jonathan Cole ( CC'64, GSAS '69), who studied under Lazarsfeld and Columbia emeritus professor Robert K. Merton while a graduate student at Columbia. " The Bureau was designed to develop theoretical ideas that were tested with empirical evidence and research. There was a close linkage between theory and research. In those days, it was about legitimizing the field as well as pursuing discoveries in research."

The ground-breaking studies conducted by Lazarsfeld and his colleagues blended several fields of scholarship, such as economics, mathematics, sociology, social psychology and political science. Among the most prominent inquiries dealt with the impact of radio and television on the American public, helping the Bureau become the "birthplace" of mass communication research, according to communication historian Everett Rogers.

Innovative studies coming out of the Bureau of Applied Social Research included The People's Choice (Columbia University Press 1944), by Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet, which analyzed how Americans made their voting decisions during the 1940 presidential campaign, and Personal Influence (Free Press 1955), by Elihu Katz and Lazarsfeld, which examined the relationship between the mass media and interpersonal communication in the process of opinion leadership.

Other the prominent works to come out of the Bureau were Union Democracy (Free Press 1956), an innovative study of organizations, by Seymour Martin Lipset, Martin Trow and James Coleman, and The Focused Interview Democracy (Free Press 1956) by Merton, Marjorie Fiske Lowenthal and Patricia Kendall. It presented research using what are now called focus groups.

"When the Bureau was at its peak, people would often spend 14 to 15 hours a day there, of which three or four hours were devoted to deep conversation with colleagues about the direction of research," Cole said. "It was an exciting place to be. That's what we want to re-create now at ISERP."

Speakers at the Lazarsfeld conference include: University of Chicago Sociologist Andrew Abbott, ISERP Director and Columbia Sociologist Peter Bearman, Social Science Research Council President Craig Calhoun, University of Chicago Sociologist Terry Nichols Clark, Columbia Provost Jonathan Cole, SUNY-Stony Brook Sociologist Stephen Cole, Stanford Emeritus Professor William J. Goode, Columbia Religion Professor Gillian Lindt, University of North Carolina Sociologist Anthony Oberschall and Emeritus Professor John Shelton Reed, University of Chicago Sociologist Robert Sampson, Princeton Demography Professor Burton Singer, Columbia Social Science Professor Charles Tilly and Columbia Sociology Professor Harrison White.