The Hughesian Legacy: William Shaffir—A Principal Interpreter of the Chicago School Diaspora in Canada

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.16.2.02

Keywords:

Herbert Blumer, George Herbert Mead, Georg Simmel, Everett C. Hughes, William Shaffir, Symbolic Interactionism, Fieldwork Method, The Chicago School, The Chicago School Diaspora

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss the invaluable role played by William Shaffir, my mentor and doc­toral supervisor, who shaped my approach to interpretive fieldwork and deepened my understanding of symbolic interactionist theory. Known affectionately as Billy to his colleagues and students, Shaffir is a gifted educator and one of the finest ethnographic researchers of his generation. My focus is on how the scholarly tradition that flows from Georg Simmel through Robert Park, Herbert Blumer, and Everett C. Hughes, passed from Billy on to me, is illustrative of what Low and Bowden (2013) conceptualize as the Chicago School Diaspora. This concept does not refer to the scattering of a people, but rather to how key ideas and symbolic representations of key figures associated with the Chicago School have been tak­en up by those who themselves are not directly affiliated with the University of Chicago. In this regard, while not a key figure of the Chicago School himself, Shaffir stands at the boundary between the Chica­go School of sociology and scholars with no official relationship to the School. As such he is a principal interpreter of the Chicago School Diaspora in Canadian Sociology.

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Author Biography

Jacqueline Low, University of New Brunswick, Canada

Jacqueline Low is a Professor of Sociology at the Uni­versity of New Brunswick. Her areas of expertise are qual­itative methodology, symbolic interactionist theory, the sociology of health, illness, and the body, as well as devi­ant behavior and social problems. Among her most signif­icant publications are: Structure, Agency, and Social Reality in Blumerian Symbolic Interactionism: The Influence of Georg Simmel (2008, Symbolic Interaction); The Chicago School Dias­pora: Epistemology and Substance ( Low a nd B owden, 2 013, McGill-Queen’s University Press); and A Pragmatic Defini­tion of the Concept of Theoretical Saturation (2019, Sociological Focus).

 

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Published

2020-04-30

How to Cite

Low, J. (2020). The Hughesian Legacy: William Shaffir—A Principal Interpreter of the Chicago School Diaspora in Canada. Qualitative Sociology Review, 16(2), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.16.2.02