Description: (sociologist, criminologist, writer, university teacher)
Robert E. Park was a pioneering American urban sociologist who transformed sociology from a passive discipline to an active study of human behavior. He made significant contributions to the study of urban communities, race relations, and research methods such as participant observation in criminology. Park collaborated with Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute before teaching at the University of Chicago, where he played a key role in the development of the Chicago School of sociology. His research focused on human ecology, race relations, migration, assimilation, social movements, and social disorganization, defining sociology as a natural science and emphasizing its investigative nature.