Lazarsfeld designed the radio project’s music section as empirical research informed by European theory

Evidence

I intend to make the musical section, so to speak, the hunting ground for the `European approach’. By that I mean two things: a more theoretical attitude toward the research problem, and a more pessimistic attitude toward an instrument of technical progress. It is especially the first point to which I should like to draw your attention. Our project definitely deals with empirical research. But I am convinced, the same as you are, that fact-finding can be extremely improved by extensive preliminary theoretical thinking. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 260

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School’s recurring tension between Critical Theory and American empirical social research, and to Adorno’s later radio-music studies. — connects to: Lazarsfeld deliberately carved out theory-friendly space for European critical music research. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 985; Lazarsfeld worked to integrate European theorists like Adorno into American social research. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 263
• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘the European approach’ meant operationally in this collaboration: theoretical attitude plus pessimism toward technical progress.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Lazarsfeld deliberately carved out theory-friendly space for European critical music research. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 985; Lazarsfeld worked to integrate European theorists like Adorno into American social research. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 263