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;