Sociografie, sociale planning en de IJsselmeerpolders

Abstract

Between 1930 and 1966, Mens en Maatschappij published numerous articles on the planning and development of the IJsselmeerpolders, a genre reaching scholarly maturity between 1945 and 1955. Most of these publications were authored by Amsterdam sociographers. The IJsselmeerpolder research provides insight into how Mens en Maatschappij’s co-founders Sebald Rudolph Steinmetz (1862-1940), Henri Nicolaas ter Veen (1883-1949), and their students shaped social-scientific research and how this research spoke to the ambition to change Dutch society. The sociographic legacy plays a pivotal role in the development of Dutch human geography, sociology, cultural anthropology and planology (spatial planning). Resultingly, the sociographers’ vision reflects the roots of Dutch social science at large.