Florian Znaniecki

Florian Znaniecki

Florian Witold Znaniecki (January 15, 1882 – March 23, 1958) was a Polish sociologist. He taught and wrote in Poland and the United States. He was the 44th President of the American Sociological Association and the founder of academic sociology studies in Poland. His theoretical and methodological work contributed to the development of Sociology as a distinct academic discipline.

He gained international fame as the co-author with William I. Thomas of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America 1918-1920, considered the foundation of modern empirical sociology and humanistic sociology.

His Presidential Address, "Basic Problems of Contemporary Sociology," was delivered on September 8, 1954 at the Association's Annual Meeting, and was later published in the American Sociological Review (ASR October 1954 Vol 19 No 5, pp 519–524).