Ways of telling about society: Howard S. Becker in conversation with Reiner Keller

In: Forum qualitative Sozialforschung: FQS = Forum: qualitative social research, Band 17, Heft 2

Abstract

In the following conversation, Howard S. Becker talks about his lifelong travel with and between sociology and jazz music, his professional training as a sociologist, the hazards of a career, and his involvement with photography and performance. He reflects on the different ways used by artists and sociologists to tell solid stories about social phenomena, and tells a compelling account in its own right about the methodology of sound sociological field work and case study research. By explaining core concepts of his sociological perspective (such as the concept of labeling and "doing things together") and referring to concrete research examples, Becker in all modesty fully engages with what could be called today's sociological imagination, leaving narrow disciplinary constraints behind in order to explore society with curiosity, using methodologically sensible but nevertheless refreshing approaches. (author's abstract)