Participant Observer: An Autobiography

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of behavioral scientist Whyte's first, and arguably his most important work, Street Corner Society . The study of the social organization of Boston's North End, at the time a largely Italian slum, was a perfect example of what Whyte meant by participant observer. For three years Whyte, then a Harvard junior fellow, lived and worked in the community, even bringing his new wife to live in a icy flat in the neighborhood. Whyte would subsequently move on to examine industrial organization and labor management in various companies, but soon after transferring to Cornell, his focus shifted to South and Central America, working with industries and rural workers' cooperatives in Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala and other countries. Whyte's straightforward, slightly stilted prose combines with an engaging modesty (``I like to think that my more relaxed senior year helped humanize a too rigid and self-righteous Bill Whyte'') to make for an enjoyable record of his early life, but unfortunately he loses focus in accounts of later undertakings, bogging them down in details of who was involved and which acronyms were doing the funding. Most readers will find themselves wanting more about findings, results and Whyte's personal experiences. (June)