The Systematic Analysis of Socially Significant Events: A Strategy for Social Research

One of Kurt Lcwin's convictions w a s that a study of tlie significant social plienonicna almiit us is iniportant to the development o f a social sciencc, wortli taking scrionsly. He 1)elievcd that the close interrelating o f social rescarcli and theory with everyclay social events woiild, i f iindertukc~i tematically, contribute greatly to the developmcnt of basic science,. i t is 011 this point that what I shall have to s a y today makes contact with his life and inHiience. Lewin's v icw on this niattcxr \\'as shared by those psychologists wlio totintled SPSSI and provided its leadership during its carlicx ycars. For many of tliesr psychologists mcvnbcrsliip in SPSSI and choice ot researcli ~"ublems went hand in hand. As tlie years have passed, this coincidence of SPSSI ~neml~ership and research on significant social phei~onicna lias become less and less frequent. i sliall try to suggest somc rcasons why this change lias takcw place and wliat I think niiglit I)<> done> a1)oiit it. Rut first I slioiiltl likc to makc csplicit my own recognition o f a fact which constitiitvs the 1)ackgrotintl for nitlcli of what I liavc: to say. 'This is that I speak toclay not only of my o\\m work and tliinking but of that of two rcscarch groups whosc achievcnients arc, in fact, responsible for my selection for this a\vard. One of these groups is CCI, the Coinmission on Community Interrelations of thc American Jewish Congress, which Lewin forincled; the other is the Rcwarcli Center for H u m a n Relations of Kew York IJniversity. Over the past fifteen years my ideas have tleveloped inscpra1)ly from tliosc of iny colleagiies in these groups; all of my rcscarcli lras hecn done i n colla1,oration wit11 tliein. I no longc~ know tlic soiircc' of sonic of the thouglits I sliall voice; I ciui l n t call yoiir attcmtion at the outset to the probability that much of \vliat is to follow originated with others. A t least tcii o f my prcxmt