Jane Addams and the Hull-House Maps & Papers: A Knowledge-Culture Approach

Abstract

Jane Addams - social researcher, socio-political activist, and Nobel Peace Prize winner - is one of those "women in sociology" (Honegger/Wobbe 1998) who are seldom remembered today in the history of the discipline. Although Addams’ research and sociopolitical activities shaped academic and public life in Chicago significantly at that time, her work has been overshadowed by the "Men of the Chicago School" (Deegan 1988) at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Our contribution intends to pay tribute to Jane Addams as a classic figure of problem-oriented social research and is structured as follows: We begin with a brief biographical portrait of Jane Addams (1) and then describe the Hull-House and the Hull- House Maps & Papers in the socio-historical context of the settlement movement (2). In the next step we outline the approach of sociological cultures of knowledge, in order to proceed with a knowledge-culture interpretation of Addams' work (3). We conclude with a plea for a greater reception of the Maps & Papers and for the recognition of Jane Addams’ pioneering role in sociology, which unfolded beyond the confines of university and non-university research and the later established lines of academic discourse (4).