INSTRUCTION IN THE OBSERVATION OF SOCIAL FACTS ACCORDING TO THE LE PLAY METHOD OF MONOGRAPHS ON FAMILIES. 1
I.
I. Principles and advantages of the method of F. Le Play. The Le Play method consists : first, in basing the study of populations upon that of certain families judiciously chosen and belonging to the working class ; second, in describing these families according to a determined and uniform outline. Seeing in the family the true social unit, it proceeds as the zoologist who, in order to describe a living species, applies to certain individuals of this species the processes of anatomical and physiological investigation. It searches for the laws of social science in the most simple cases, reserving the determination of the influences which modify them in more complex cases.
It is to facilitate observation and to render it more fruitful that it is preferred to choose among laboring families the types for monographs. These families in fact form the great mass of the population. They are more subordinated, in their material life and in their physical activity, to the climate and to the pro- ductions of the country which they inhabit, and for this reason they also form the characteristic element of the population. Moreover, certain classes of laborers are less exposed than the superior classes to social fluctuations. They conserve with an energy wholly peculiar the order which has been progressively established by anterior civilizations, and which must be the basis for accomplishing new improvements. Finally the rela- tions which bind the laborers to the superior classes are every- where the foundation of the existence of these latter, and the principal trait of nationality.
translated for the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY by CHARLES A. ELL- WOOD.
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