Sociological Work: Method and Substance

ISBN-13: 9780878556304 / Angielski / Miękka / 1976 / 369 str.

Howard Saul Becker; Howard Saul Becker

Opis

The papers in this volume, including two important and previously unpublished essays on sociological method, represent most of Howard Becker's work of the past twenty years that has not appeared in book form.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 Becker's 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 Becker's 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.

Spis treści

PREFACE

PART I PROBLEMS OF SOCIOLOGICAL METHOD

1 On Methodology

2 Problems of Inference and Proof in Participant Observation

3 Field Work Evidence

4 The Life History and the Scientific Mosaic

5 Social Observation and Social Case Studies

6 The Nature of a Profession

7 Problems in the Publication of Field Studies

8 Whose Side Are We On?

PART II EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND EXPERIENCES

9 Social-Class Variations in the Teacher-Pupil Relationship

10 The Teacher in the Authority System of the Public School

11 The Career of the Chicago Public School Teacher

12 The Elements of Identification with an Occupation (with James Carper)

13 The Development of Identification with an Occupation (with James Carper)

14 Adjustment of Conflicting Expectations in the Development of Identification with an Occupation (with James Carper)

15 Schools and Systems of Social Status

16 Noncollege Youth

PART III THE PROCESSES OF PERSONAL CHANGE

17 Careers, Personality and Adult Socialization (with Anselm L. Strauss)

18 Notes on the Concept of Commitment

19 Personal Change in Adult Life

20 The Self and Adult Socialization

PART IV DEVIANCE

21 History, Culture and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social Bases of Drug-Induced Experiences

22 Conventional Crime: Rationalizations and Punishment

23 Deviance and Deviates

INDEX

O autorze

Fanny Ginor