The Chicago workshops forged the school’s shared methodological identity

Evidence

Together, Friedman, Director, and Stigler formed a nexus that connected the graduate program in economics and the professional schools. Over time the interpersonal relationships that drew these programs together were reinforced by a distinctive institutional culture. In the early 1950s Friedman and several of his colleagues used funding from both the Ford Foundation and a Chilean fellowship program to pioneer the development of a novel system of workshops. In an attempt to model socialscientifi c research after scientifi c labs, professors and advanced graduate students began meeting regularly to discuss their emerging work in a shared fi eld of interest. Presenters distributed mimeographed papers before the meetings, and the discussions that ensued became notorious for dispensing with the culture of politeness that characterized much of the American academic world. The most distinguished of these workshops, which included Friedman’s on money and banking, Stigler’s on industrial or ga ni za tion, and the Law School’s on law and economics, helped drill students in their professors’ distinctive modes of analysis. The culture of these research communities accounted for much of the shared identity and methodological infl uence of the postwar Chicago School. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 436

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s work on how intellectual movements build institutional infrastructure — parallels the MPS itself and Bourdieu-style field formation. — connects to: The Chicago School’s founding involved doctrinal negotiation, not just funding — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 761; Aaron Director’s conversion from leftist politics shaped the Chicago School’s formation — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 732
• SEED: Angle on the workshop as an institutional innovation: combative seminar cultures as identity-forging devices in economics departments.

Broader Connections

• The Chicago School’s founding involved doctrinal negotiation, not just funding #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 761
• Aaron Director’s conversion from leftist politics shaped the Chicago School’s formation #corroborates (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 732