This article examines the motivation of Whyte's study, his strategy and his main method - participant observation. It gives the overview of the methodological debate fifty years after the first publication of the famous Street Corner Society study between W.
F. Whyte, N.
K. Denzin, A.
J. Vidich and others.
Street Corner Society is an early analysis of social network among young members of social groups in Nord Boston slum neighbourhood.