On the Migration of Sociological Structures, 1933-1941: A forgotten episode in the history of American Sociology and a case study in the Sociology of Sociology

An unexamined problem in the history of American sociology is how to understand cross-societal transference of theoretical structures. The case study considered here is that of the cultural migration of refugee scholars from Nazi Germany to the United States. This paper treats this event as a problem in the sociology of theory structures. Habermas' work on the social character of scientific knowledge aids in conceptualizing our frame work.