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--Djjr (talk) 18:12, 28 October 2011 (UTC) Mills library does have some Becker works. Have you seen the interview in Sociological Perspectives (Vol. 46, No. 1, Spring 2003)?
--Djjr (talk) 23:13, 6 November 2011 (UTC) Are you user CO1121??

--Izbski (talk) What section would you like me to look at in particular?

--Caitmcn (talk) I made some suggestions on your talk page

Howard S. Becker
Born	(1928-04-18)18 April 1928 Chicago, Illinois
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Chicago
Known for	labeling theory, sociology of deviance, sociology of art
Scientific career
Fields	sociology, music
Institutions	Northwestern University, University of Washington

Lead

Howard Saul Becker (born April 18, 1928) is an American sociologist who made major contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art, and sociology of music. Becker also wrote extensively on sociological writing styles and methodologies. In addition, Becker's book The Outsiders provided the foundations for labeling theory. Becker is often called a symbolic interactionist or social constructionist, however he does not align himself with either field. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Becker is considered part of the second Chicago School of Sociology which also includes Erving Goffman, Gary Fine and Anselm Strauss.

Biography

Early Life and Education

Howard Saul Becker was born April 18, 1928 in Chicago, IL. Becker began playing piano at an early age and by age 15 worked as a jazz pianist with the campus band at Northwestern University. According to Becker, he was able to work semi-professionally because of World War II and the fact that most musicians over the age of 18 were drafted. As a jazz pianist, Becker worked at fraternity and sorority parties, bars, and strip clubs across the city. It was through his work as a musician Becker first became exposed to drug culture which he would later study.

Becker received his undergraduate degree in sociology at the University of Chicago in 1946. While in school, Becker continued to play piano semi-professionally. According to Becker, he viewed music as his career and sociology as a hobby. Even so, he went on the get both his M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on Chicago school teachers.At the University of Chicago, Becker was taught in the tradition of the original Chicago School of Sociology. Becker and his colleagues, including Erving Goffman, Anselm Strauss, and Gary Fine, would later be considered part of the "second Chicago School of Sociology"

The Chicago School of Sociology focused heavily on qualitative data analysis and worked with the city of Chicago as a laboratory. Much of Becker's early work was guided in the Chicago School tradition, in particular by Everett C. Hughes who served as Becker's mentor and advisor.. Becker is also often labeled a symbolic interactionist, even though Becker himself never claims the label. According to Becker, his academic lineage is Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park, and Everett Hughes.

After receiving his Ph.D. at the age of 23, Becker studied Marijuana use at the Institute for Juvenile Research. He was later awarded the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Illinois from 1953-1955. Becker then spent three years as a research associate at Stanford University's Institute for the Study of Human Problems before beginning his teaching career.

Teaching Career

After receiving his doctorate at the University of Chicago, Becker worked for three years as an instructor of sociology and social sciences at the University of Chicago. In 1965, Becker became a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, where he taught until 1991. During his career at Northwestern, Becker also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Manchester and as a visiting scholar at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. In 1991, Becker became a professor of sociology and an adjunct professor of music at the University of Washington until he retired in 1999.

Becker has also been the recipient of numerous awards and honors in his field. These include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978-1979, the Charles Horton Cooley Award, awarded by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction, in 1980, the Common Wealth Award in 1981, the Cooley/Mead Award in the Section on Social Psychology, awarded by the American Sociological Association in 1985, and the George Herbert Mead Award for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship, awarded by the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in 1987. Becker also hold honorary degrees from Université de Paris VIII, Université Pierre Mendes-France, Grenoble, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon.

Retirement

Becker currently resides in San Francisco, CA. He also spends three to four months out of the year in Europe, mostly Paris, France. Although no longer teaching full-time, Becker continues to write and record music

In 2004, Un sociologue en liberté: Lecture d’Howard S. Becker by french sociologist Alain Pessin was released in France. In the book, Pessin examines Becker's work and contributions to the field of sociology.

Contributions

Sociology of Deviance and Labeling Theory

Although Becker does not claim to be a deviancy specialist, his work on the subject it often cited by sociologist and criminologist studying deviance. Becker's 1963 book Outsiders is credited as one of the first books on labeling theory and its application to studies of deviance. A compilation of early essays on the subject, Outsiders outlines Becker's theories of deviance through two deviant groups; marihuana users and dance musicians. In the book, Becker defines deviance as "not a quality of a bad person but the result of someone defining someone’s activity as bad."

Becker is widely known for his work on drug culture, particularly his studies on marihuana use. Chapters three and four of Outsiders, which were originally published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1953, examine how marihuana users come to be labeled as social deviants. Becker was inspired to write on the subject after reading Alfred Lindesmith's book on opium addiction. As a musician, Becker had first hand experience with drug culture and was able to obtain interview participants through his connections to the music scene. The first of the articles, "Becoming a Marihuana User," outlines how social interaction plays a role in learning to use and enjoy the effects of the drug. The second, "Marihuana Use and Social Control," describes how mechanisms of control serve to limit use of the drug and further label users as deviants. In the late 1960s, Becker wrote two additional articles on drug culture, “History, Culture and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social Bases of Drug–Induced Experiences” and “Ending Campus Drug Incidents." Even though he has not written anything on drug culture since the 1970s, Becker is still widely recognized as a influential drug culture researcher.

Another contribution Becker made to the sociology of deviance were his studies on deviant cultures. In Outsiders, Becker examined the formation of deviant cultures through his observations of musicians. The musicians, according to Becker, place themselves counter to non-musicians or "squares," which in turn strengthens and isolates them as a deviant culture. Another important contribution Becker makes through his studies of deviant culture is the concept of "deviant careers." In the case of musicians, Becker examines the consequences of an individual choosing an occupation that is already located within a deviant group and how this in turn labels the actor choosing the career as deviant. Becker's work on deviant careers is greatly influenced by the work of his mentor Everett Hughes.

Becker's work on deviance has solidified him as one of the founders of labeling theory. Labeling theory is based on the idea that a social deviant is not an inherently deviant individual, rather they become deviant because they are labeled as such. In the first chapter of Outsiders, Becker explains:

"...social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction creates deviance, and by applying those roles to particular people and labeling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by other of rules and sanctions to an 'offender.' The deviant is one to whom that label has been successfully applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label."

According to Becker, not all individuals who are labeled deviant must remain deviant, however once labeled deviant it becomes more likely an individual will take deviant paths.In 1973, Becker rereleased Outsiders with a final chapter titled "Labeling Theory Reconsidered." In the chapter, Becker responds to critics who argue that labeling theory fails to provide an etiological explanation of deviance or an explanation of how individuals come to commit deviant acts in the first place. Becker explains that the theory was not meant to be taken as an overarching theory of deviance, nor was it meant to explain deviant behaviors as simply the product of outside influence. Rather, labeling theory was meant to "focus attention on the way labeling places the actor in circumstances which make it harder for him to continue the normal routines of everyday life and thus provoke him to "abnormal" actions."

Sociology of Art

After writing his dissertation, Becker grew an interest in the sociological study of art. Becker believed that the field was underdeveloped and consisted mainly of thinly veiled value judgements of particular artists. Unlike previous work in the sociology of art, Becker approached art as "collective action" and studied art as an occupation.

One of Becker's main contributions to the field was the idea of art as a product of collective action. In his 1982 book Art Worlds, Becker describes how a work of art is formed through the coordination of many individuals. According to Becker, without each of the individuals who produce materials necessary to construct art, it becomes difficult if not impossible to create art. Becker also references how the division of labor plays a role in the creation of art work in that the work of many individuals goes into the production of the tools and routines of the artist. In addition to the tools necessary for the process of creation, Becker also emphasizes the role of shared meaning plays in ascribing value to to art. In other words, Becker believes without a common understanding of a work's value, it is difficult for it to have any social resonance.

In addition to Art Worlds, Becker has written numerous essays on the sociology of art. Two volumes of these essays have been translated in French; Paroles et Musique and Propos sur l’art. Also, in 2006, Becker edited and contributed to Art from Start to Finish, a compilation of sociological essays addressing the question of how an artists decides when a work is finished. Along with his writings on the subject, Becker also taught a course on the sociology of art.

Writing Style & Methodology

In addition to Becker's contributions to sociological theory, he has also written extensively on the practice of sociology. In Writing for Social Scientists(1986), Becker offers advice to individuals interested in social science writing. According to Becker, the book is composed of information he learned from students while teaching a seminar at Northwestern University on sociological writing style. Becker argues "bad sociological writing cannot be separated from the theoretical problems of the discipline." Thus, Becker advises scholars to write in a direct style; avoiding the passive voice and abstract nouns.

In Tricks of the Trade, Becker outlines his ideas on sociological methods. The book focuses on Becker's belief that it is impossible to establish a method of research independent of the situation it is being used in. According to Becker, the principles of social research he describes in the book are based primarily on what he learned from his professors and colleagues at the University of Chicago. Furthermore, Becker promotes systematic data collection and rigorous analysis as a way to make sense of social world.

In Telling About Society, considered the third installment in Becker's series of writing guides, Becker argues that socially produced texts, or artifacts can be valuable sources of information about the society which has produced them. As in earlier works, he stresses the importance of studying the activities and processes which have created these artifacts, as opposed to just studying the objects themselves.

Outline

• Intro
• Early Life
• Career
• Methodology
• Writing Style
• Art & Music
• Labeling Theory & Deviance
• Other Contributions
• Works

  Books

  Articles

• References

Notes

From Becker's Homepage

• Born April 18, 1928, Chicago, IL
• Currently resides in San Francisco
• Spends 3 to 4 months a year in Europe, mostly Paris France
• Not related to other Howard Becker
• Ph. D University of Chicago 1951
• Instructor at University of Chicago 1951-1953
• Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University 1965-1991
• Vice-President (Central Division), Pacific Sociological Association, 1964-1965
• Professor of Sociology at University of Washington, 1991-1999

From Interview w/Alain Mueller on Telling about Society

• self-described ex-professional jazz pianist who chose sociology as a pastime
• Bruno Latour describes Becker’s methods as “perfectly theorized art of not using theory”
• believes is systematic deconstruction of traditional social science
• “seeks to avoid authoritarian definitions of social reality’s boundaries”
• In Telling about Society Becker “questions commonly accepted ways of social science”--critique of academic sociology
• Doesn’t believe in a “best” way of doing sociological research
• examines how different materials such as mathematical models, art, theater and literature, are sociologically significant
• Everyone is expert in their own work--their way of doing it is the best way of doing it.
• Writing for Social Sciences - the way one writes a thesis or dissertation, not analogous to being sociologist
• ”interpretive communities”
• “a sociology of sociology”- argues sociologist write for sociologist, need to expand “interpretive communities” be more inclusive
• According to Becker-- he didn’t choose to be a sociologist, it just happened
• main interest music--then sociology just fell into place

References

• Becker, Howard S. “HOWIEs Homepage.” Retrieved November 13, 2011. (http://home.earthlink.net/~hsbecker/index.html)
• Muller, Alain. 2009. “Dialogue avec Howard Becker: Comment parler de la societé?” Retrieved November 13, 2011. (http://home.earthlink.net/~hsbecker/articles/Suisse%20English.html).

Fill In the Blanks:

0. Five Main Issues

1. Missing Info on School of Thought (Symbolic Interactionism)
2. Background on 2nd Chicago School
3. Subsection: Becker's Methodology
4. Subsection: 'Labeling Theory' Influence & Criticism
5. Expanded Definition: "hierarchy of credibility"

1. Five Additional References

1. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. Howard S. Becker (1963).
2. Writing for Social Scientists. Howard S. Becker. (?)
3. "Continuity and Change in Howard S. Becker's Work." (2003). Ken Plummer. Sociological Perspectives
4. Sociological Review "Book Reviews"
5. "Howard S. Becker: A Portrait of an Intellectual's Sociological Imagination" Sociological Inquiry 59:4 (1989). (Still working on access but looks promising)

2. Current Citation Style

ASA, Footnotes (Is this what you mean?)

3. In Need of Reference

1. Influence of Everett C. Hughes
2. Info on Doctoral Dissertation
3. Info on teaching career
4. Info on current life
5. Work on Chicago Manual of Style
6. ???

4. Five Most Important Biographical Facts

1. Studied at University of Chicago
2. Coined concept of "Labeling Theory"
3. Studies of Deviance
4. Sociology of Art & Visual Sociology
5. Later focus on sociological writing style

5. Major & Minor Works

Major

1. Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School, with Blanche Geer, Everett C. Hughes and Anselm Strauss (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961)
2. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. (New York: The Free Press, 1963).
3. Making the Grade: The Academic Side of College Life with Blanche Geer and Everett C. Hughes (New York: Wiley, 1968). New edition (1995) with new introduction.
4. Sociological Work: Method and Substance. (Chicago: Adline, 1970) collected papers, including two previously unpublished: "On Methodology" and "Field Work Evidence."
5. Art Worlds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982)
6. Writing for Social Scientists. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, Second Edition, 2007)
7. Doing Things Together: Selected Papers, (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1986).
8. Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
9. Telling About Society. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007)
10. Do You Know . . . ? The Jazz Repertoire in Action (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009)

Selected Minor Works

1. "The Teacher in the Authority System of the Public School" (1953) Journal of Educational Sociology 27,3:128-141
2. "Social-Class Variations in the Teacher-Pupil Relationship" (1952) Journal of Educational Sociology 25,8:451-465
3. "Social Theory in Brazil" (1992) Sociological Theory 10,1:1-5
4. "History, Culture and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social Bases of Drug-Induced Experiences History, Culture and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social Bases of Drug-Induced Experiences" (1967) Journal of Health and Social Behavior 8,3:163-176
5. "Art As Collective Action" (1974) American Sociological Review 39,6:767-776.
6. (should I include all essays including those he co-authored?)

Current Article

Howard Saul Becker (born April 18, 1928) is an American sociologist.

Biography

Becker was born in Chicago, Illinois. As an undergraduate and later a graduate student at the University of Chicago, he worked as a professional jazz pianist, and plays still. He earned his Ph.B., A.M., and Ph.D., all at the University of Chicago, 1946, 1949 and 1951, respectively.

His professor, Everett C. Hughes, whose primary interest was the sociology of work and professions, was an important influence on Becker. It was Hughes, Becker reports, who first encouraged him to undertake the study of jazz musicians as a professional group. This research led Becker to write extensively about drug use, and he put off publishing it for over a decade until 1963, when the political climate in the United States had improved. The resulting book, "Outsiders" was a critical work in the sociology of deviance and laid the foundation of labeling theory. In that book he "said everything I have to say about labeling theory.".

For his doctoral dissertation, Becker studied Chicago schoolteachers. Generally speaking, his work reflects the prevailing thematic and theoretical preoccupations of Chicago sociology at that time, with its attention to symbolic interactions involving race, status, and power in the urban melting pot. Erving Goffman was a contemporary of Becker's at Chicago, and their research interests and writing styles both reflect a similar formative milieu. Since that time, Becker, Goffman and others such as Anselm Strauss have become known as the "Second Chicago School"

After receiving his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1951 he went on to teach in Sociology Departments at Northwestern University, the University of Washington, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. However, the majority of his research, writing and teaching was in other fields of sociology, including but not limited to the sociology of art, qualitative method, visual sociology and the practice of research and writing (composition theory) in social sciences.

Becker is known for the clarity of his prose, and is a staunch advocate of what has been termed the "Plain style" of writing (see, for example, The Elements of Style). His stylistic predilections betray his academic pedigree: at the time he was a student, sociologists at the University of Chicago embraced European positivism and Midwestern pragmatism. They sought to communicate their ideas with scientific precision, on the one hand, while making them accessible to politicians and planners, on the other. He developed various aspects of a sociology of writing in his Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book, or Article. It is considered to be one of the best books advising all academics how to write. The book reflects the conviction that clear prose and clear thinking are inseparable. He served on the advisory board for the 15th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style.

Becker is notable for coining the phrase "hierarchy of credibility" (in ‘Whose Side Are We On?’, Social Problems, 1967.) The Hierarchy of credibility is a concept according purportedly objective judgments of fact and evidence are necessarily tilted in favor of those at the top of a society because they will have had more resources to produce seemingly objective evidence that tends to favor the privileges they enjoy. Becker argues that it is the scholar's responsibility to find evidence that supports the claims of society's least privileged. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993.

While he lives in San Francisco, Becker regularly sojourns in France, previously in the company of Alain Pessin, a sociologist at the University of Grenoble who wrote a book on Becker titled Un sociologue en liberté. Lecture de Howard S. Becker (A sociologist in liberty; a reading of Howard S. Becker). Pessin died in 2005.

Becker's students include Elijah Anderson and Mitchell Duneier.

Bibliography

• Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School, with Blanche Geer, Everett C. Hughes and Anselm Strauss (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961)
• Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. (New York: The Free Press, 1963)
• Making the Grade: The Academic Side of College Life with Blanche Geer and Everett C. Hughes (New York: Wiley, 1968). New edition (1995) with new introduction.
• Sociological Work: Method and Substance. (Chicago: Adline, 1970) collected papers, including two previously unpublished: "On Methodology" and "Field Work Evidence."
• Art Worlds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).
• Writing for Social Scientists. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, Second Edition, 2007). ISBN 9780226041322
• Doing Things Together: Selected Papers, (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1986).
• Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). ISBN 9780226041247 Excerpt
• Telling About Society. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007). ISBN 9780226041261
• Do You Know . . . ? The Jazz Repertoire in Action (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), with Robert R. Faulkner. ISBN 9780226239217 Excerpt.

See also

• Chicago school (sociology)

External links

• Becker, Howard (1967) Whose Side Are We On? Social Problems, 14 (Winter) pp. 239–47 [1]
• Howard S. Becker's website [2]
• Howard S. Becker's Curriculum Vitae [3]

Category:1928 births Category:American sociologists Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Labeling theory Category:Living people Category:Northwestern University faculty Category:People from Chicago Category:University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:University of Washington faculty