Introduction to the Second Edition of The Focused Interview by Robert K. Merton (in Catalan)

Translation into Catalan by Xavier Gimeno Torrent of «The Focussed Interview and Focus Groups: Continuities and Discontinuities» by Robert K. Merton. Published in Revista Catalana de Sociologia, 2011, volume 27: 89-103.

More than forty years have passed since The Focused Interview began to be formulated at the Bureau of Applied Social Research (BASR), then in its first decade of existence at Columbia University. First and foremost, the report is a useful guide to individual and group interviewing, shaped by a sophisticated grasp both of theories of social exchange and of the scientific requirements for gathering data and testing hypotheses. It is also a testimonial to the uniquely fruitful collaboration of BASR founder Paul F. Lazarsfeld, with his life-long colleague, Robert K. Merton, as well as with Patricia Kendall. Thus, the book (and Merton’s illuminating new introduction) will be of great interest to historians of the social sciences.