GRADUATE TRAINING THROUGH THE DETROIT AREA STUDY.

The Detroit Area Study, a continuing graduate training and faculty research program, was established in 1951 at the University of Michigan. The basic goals and procedures of this organization were described in a paper given by researcher Ronald Freedman at the 1952 meetings of the American Sociological Association. This article attempts to summarize and evaluate the training operations of the Detroit Area Study during the first eight and one-half years of its existence. Coincidental with the establishment of the Detroit Area Study, the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan removed the requirement of a formal masters' thesis for completion of the M.A. degree. This action was taken in the belief that most first-year graduate students, possessing very little experience in empirical research and no research funds, would benefit more from participation in a program of the type described below than from individual work on an M.A. thesis. At this time, there was also a growing conviction among many social scientists of the need for student experience in a social laboratory which would be analogous to the laboratory of the physical scientist.