Born in Iaşi, he began studying Letters at the University of Iaşi before moving on to the Universität unter den Linden and the University of Leipzig, where he studied and completed a doctorate in Philosophy. In 1905, he began the study of Sociology, Law, and Political economy at the Universität unter den Linden. Gusti was appointed to the Department of Ancient History, Ethics and Sociology of the University of Iaşi in 1910, and was one of the main contributors to the creation of a new Romanian school of sociology. He moved to Bucharest in 1920, and began work as a professor at the University of Bucharest, in the Department of Sociology, Ethics, Politics and Aesthetics of the latter's Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. His lectures became a center of interest inside the academic community, and he attracted students with diverse backgrounds and political convictions. Creator of the Bucharest School of Sociology and several Institutes, he also led, between 1925 and 1948, the intense research of Romanian villages and the publishing of its results as detailed monographs. In 1936, together with Stahl and Victor Ion Popa, Gusti created the Village Museum in Bucharest. He left the National Peasants' Party after 1938, disagreeing with its decision to oppose the authoritarian regime of King Carol II, and collaborated with the newly created National Renaissance Front. Consequently, he was threatened by the rise of the fascistIron Guard ; following the Legionary Rebellion and the Guard's defeat, he sent a congratulatory telegram to Conducător Ion Antonescu. After the end of World War II, Gusti was approached by the new Communist government with offers of collaboration. He was invited to attend official ceremonies inside the Soviet Union, and was a member of the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union. He died in Bucharest, and was buried at Bellu cemetery.
Theory
Gusti defined his view on society as dependent on a set of principles:
Society is composed of "social units", as groups of humans linked by a voluntary organizing activity and interconnected spiritually.
"Social will" is conditioned by factors which are included in four fundamental and parallel categories: cosmical, biological, psychological, and historical.
The changes engineered by the factors are known as "social processes".
The premises of development one can observe in present society, and thus can predict with some accuracy, are known as "social trends".
A creator of the sociological monographic method, Gusti favored and theoretised first-hand intensive observation of social units and phenomena, as well as interdisciplinarity, with the research work being carried out through intensive collaboration within the field of social sciences, but also with doctors, agronomists, schoolteachers, etc.
Main works
Egoismus und Altruismus, 1904
Die soziologischen Betrehungen in der neuen Ethik, 1908
Cosmologia elenă, 1929
Sociologia militans,
Enciclopedia României, vols. I-IV, Bucharest, 1938, 1943
