This is a 10 page paper discussing the methodology used in William Foote Whyte’s “Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum”. Originally published in 1943, William Foote Whyte’s “Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum” has since become one of the most referenced works in the social sciences of a methodological research technique which is known as participant observation, and has since been translated into Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Italian and Spanish and sold more than 270,000 copies. The fieldwork for the book was conducted between 1937 and 1940 in an Italian neighborhood in Boston referred to as “Cornerville”. Whyte worked like an anthropologist and immersed himself in the lives of the men he studied and in some instances came quite close to “going native” which is one of the greatest risks of participatory observation. After his period of field research, Whyte commented additionally on the effects of his method in regards to his subject matter and also what affects the study and publication may have on the central characters within the work
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of an Italian Slum" has since become one of the most referenced works in the social sciences of a methodological research technique which is known as participant observation, and has
since been translated into Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Italian and Spanish and sold more than 270,000 copies. The fieldwork for the book was conducted between 1937 and 1940 in an
Italian neighborhood in Boston referred to as "Cornerville". Whyte worked like an anthropologist and immersed himself in the lives of the men he studied and in some instances came quite
close to "going native" which is one of the greatest risks of participatory observation. After his period of field research, Whyte commented additionally on the effects of his method in
regards to his subject matter and also what affects the study and publication may have on the central characters within the work (Whyte, 1993; Long, 2003; CNN, 2000). The book
is divided into three parts: 1) Corner Boys and College Boys; Racketeers and Politicians; and, a Conclusion, in addition to various appendixes containing demographic details of the study group, preparation
for the study and references. The first part is further divided up into sections pertaining to "Doc and His Boys", his main informant in the study; Chick and His Club;
and Social Structure and Social Mobility. The second part deals mainly with the social structure of racketeering; the racketeer in the Cornerville S. and A. Club; and politic and the
social structure (Whyte, 1993). Field Research and Participant Observation Participant observation, or participant action research (PAR) is often considered as one of the most comprehensive forms of sociological and anthropological
research and is described as "the process in which an investigator establishes a many sided and relatively long term relationship with a human association in its natural setting for the
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