The Sociology of Howard S. Becker: Theory with a Wide Horizon

154 Pages·2017·0.89 MB·English

by  Alain Pessin

The Sociology of
Howard S. Becker

The Sociology of
Howard S. Becker
Theory with a Wide Horizon
Alain Pessin
Translated by Steven Rendall
With a Foreword by William Kornblum
and Contributions by Howard S. Becker
The University of Chicago Press y Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2017 by The University of Chicago
Originally published in French as Un sociologue en liberté: Lecture de Howard S. Becker
© 2004 Les Presses de l’Université Laval
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical
articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press,
1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 36271- 7 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 36285- 4 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 36299- 1 (e- book)
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226362991.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pessin, Alain, author. | Becker, Howard Saul, 1928– author.
Title: The sociology of Howard S. Becker : theory with a wide horizon / Alain
Pessin ; translated by Steven Rendall with a foreword by William Kornblum and
contributions by Howard S. Becker.
Other titles: Sociologue en liberté. English
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2017. | Includes
bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016038509 | ISBN 9780226362717 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780226362854 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226362991 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Becker, Howard Saul, 1928– | Sociology—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC HM588 .P4713 2017 | DDC 301.01—dc23 LC record available at https://
lccn.loc.gov/2016038509
♾
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48– 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
To Dianne
and Catherine

Contents
Foreword
William Kornblum ix
Prologue xv
1 People Who Get High and the Others 1
2 Jazzmen and Company 18
3 Culture in Motion 40
4 A Sociological Perspective 53
5 What Is There to See, What Is There to Say? 67
6 A Researcher Set Free 77
Introduction to the Appendixes
Howard S. Becker 87
Appendix A: A Dialogue on the Ideas of “World” and “Field”
Howard S. Becker and Alain Pessin 91
Appendix B: A Tribute to Alain Pessin
Howard S. Becker 105
Appendix C: Four Things I Learned from Alain Pessin
Howard S. Becker 109
Notes 121
Bibliography 131
Foreword
William Kornblum
Alain Pessin’s intellectual biography of Howard Becker is a rare
jewel of transatlantic social science. The late French sociologist
argues that Becker the master sociologist has much in common
with Becker the jazz improviser: both roles are played with equal
intelligence and professional ease. Pessin shows us that as science,
Becker’s sociology is neither “soft” nor “hard” but supple. Pessin
would be delighted to know that the book, originally written to
give European readers more background on an American so-
ciologist they were devouring in translation, has finally crossed
the ocean. From it American readers will begin to understand
why Howie Becker, our plainspoken Chicagoan, has become the
world’s most recognized American sociologist, while he remains
the field’s reigning free spirit.
For Pessin, a sociologist of art, Becker’s Art Worlds (1982, 2008)
was a seminal text. In the late eighties he sought out the always-
accessible Howie in Chicago, and they remained friends until
Pessin’s untimely death in 2008. For the twenty-fi fth anniversary
edition of Art Worlds, Howie included an extended discussion
between himself and Alain Pessin about their understandings
of art as social process. But Howie not only writes about art;