Howard S. Becker is a name to conjure with on two continents —in the United States and in France. He has enjoyed renown in France for his work in sociology, which in the United States goes back more than fifty years to pathbreaking studies of deviance, professions, sociology of the arts, and a steady stream of books and articles on method. Becker, who lives part of the year in Paris, is by now part of the French intellectual scene, a street-smart jazz pianist and sociologist who offers an answer to the stifling structuralism of Pierre Bourdieu. French fame has brought French analysis, including The Sociology of Howard S. Becker, written by Alain Pessin and translated into English by Steven Rendall. The book is an exploration of Becker’s major works as expressions of the freedom of possibility within a world of collaborators. Pessin reads Becker’s work as descriptions and ideas that show how society can embody the possibilities of change, of doing things differently, of taking advantage of opportunities for free action. The book is itself a kind of collaboration—Pessin and Becker in dialogue. The Sociology of Howard S. Becker is a meeting of two cultures via two great sociological minds in conversation.

Who is Howard S. Becker? This book traces his career, examining his work and contributions to the field of sociology. Themes covered include Becker’s theoretical conceptualizations, approaches, teaching style, and positioning in the intellectual milieu. Translated from French by sociologist Robert Dingwall, the English edition benefits from an editorial introduction and additional referencing, as well as a new foreword by Becker himself.

One of the most groundbreaking sociology texts of the mid-20th century, Howard S. Becker’s Outsiders is a thorough exploration of social deviance and how it can be addressed in an understanding and helpful manner. A compulsively readable and thoroughly researched exploration of social deviance and the application of what is known as "labeling theory" to the studies of deviance. With particular research into drug culture, Outsiders analyzes unconventional individuals and their place in normal society.

Howard S. Becker is a master of his discipline. His reputation as a teacher, as well as a sociologist, is supported by his best-selling quartet of sociological guidebooks: Writing for Social Scientists, Tricks of the Trade, Telling About Society, and What About Mozart? What About Murder? It turns out that the master sociologist has yet one more trick up his sleeve—a fifth guidebook, Evidence. Becker has for seventy years been mulling over the problem of evidence. He argues that social scientists don’t take questions about the usefulness of their data as evidence for their ideas seriously enough. For example, researchers have long used the occupation of a person’s father as evidence of the family’s social class, but studies have shown this to be a flawed measure—for one thing, a lot of people answer that question too vaguely to make the reasoning plausible. The book is filled with examples like this, and Becker uses them to expose a series of errors, suggesting ways to avoid them, or even to turn them into research topics in their own right. He argues strongly that because no data-gathering method produces totally reliable information, a big part of the research job consists of getting rid of error. Readers will find Becker’s newest guidebook a valuable tool, useful for social scientists of every variety.

Explores the unconventional ways we communicate what we know about society to others. Becker explores the many ways knowledge about society can be shared and interpreted through different forms of telling—fiction, films, photographs, maps, even mathematical models—many of which remain outside the boundaries of conventional social science. Eight case studies, including the photographs of Walker Evans, the plays of George Bernard Shaw, the novels of Jane Austen and Italo Calvino, and the sociology of Erving Goffman, provide support for Becker’s argument: that every way of telling about society is perfect—for some purpose. The trick is, as Becker notes, to discover what purpose is served by doing it this way rather than that. From publisher description.

The papers in this volume, including two important and previously unpublished essays on sociological method, represent most of Howard Beckers work of the past twenty years that has not appeared in book form. They reflect the way of thinking about society and how to study it that has established Professor Beckers place among the leading sociologists of our time. Th e result is an important statement of the distinctive theoretical and methodological views associated with the "Chicago School" of sociology, reflecting a deep concern with the study at first hand of the processes and human consequences of collective action and interaction. The first part of the book treats problems of method as problems of social interaction and lists a series of research problems, which require analytic attention-gaining access to research sites, choosing a theoretical framework within which to approach a group or community, avoiding error, and developing hypotheses. They also exemplify this approach by analyzing the interactional aspects of definition, proof with qualitative evidence, bias, and the value commitments of sociology. Part Two illustrates Professor Beckers approach through full reports on two of his major research projects. Part Th ree contains four theoretical statements on how people change (a sociological approach to what psychologists call "personality"), and Part Four makes important contributions to the study of deviance. The papers here ask what we can learn about American society from looking at its common forms of deviance and illustrate the need to study deviance as part of the general study of society, not as an isolated specialty.

Every night, somewhere in the world, three or four musicians will climb on stage together. Whether the gig is at a jazz club, a bar, or a bar mitzvah, the performance never begins with a note, but with a question. The trumpet player might turn to the bassist and ask, Do you know Body and Soul'? - and from there the subtle craft of playing th...