The purpose of this text is to examine the position of W. F. Whyte, au
thor of Street corner society, in relation to the Chicago school, by c
onsulting the author's written work and personal archives, in particul
ar the handwritten work following his thesis examination, requested by
the jury in 1942. The question is to understand why he refuted his ad
herence to this sociology and its concept of ''social disorganization'
'. The authors quoted by W. F. Whyte are confronted together with the
analyses he made. The unilateral interpretation of social disorganizat
ion, the fear of stigmatizing those who live in slums, led W. F. Whyte
to minimize the effects of social recomposition and to affirm the pre
eminence of solidarity in the street social order.