The Institute ran contract research for survival alongside its own topic projects

Evidence

It was possible to distinguish between two kinds of research at the Institute. On the one hand, there were projects which were mere contract work, intended to ensure its financial survival, such as radio research, research on the atmosphere in the workplace, and other contract work carried out for Mannesmann including research into fluctuations in coalmining. On the other hand, there were projects relating to the Institute’s own topics of interest. Examples of these during the 1950s were the research on West German political awareness, research studies on the university and society, and also, to a certain extent, the further elaboration of the group discussion procedure. Further examples, during the 1960s, were the development of an A-scale, or authoritarianism scale, corresponding to the F-scale (fascism scale), and research on political awareness and political education in the Federal Republic. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2110

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the A-scale as the authoritarianism analog of the F-scale, a useful reference distinction.
• XREF: connects to: Institute research projects often served tactical legitimacy-building aims rather than pure science — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 688; Losing financial independence forced the Frankfurt Institute to accept research contracts — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1858

Broader Connections

• Losing financial independence forced the Frankfurt Institute to accept research contracts #contradicts (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1858