Agnostic Interactionism and Sensitizing Concepts in the 21st Century: Developing Shaffirian Theory-Work in Ethnographic Research

Benjamin Kelly; Michael Adorjan

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.16.2.07

Authors

Benjamin Kelly Nipissing University, Canada https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6558-9600
Michael Adorjan University of Calgary, Canada https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1900-2087

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.16.2.07

Keywords:

Qualitative Methods, Ethnography, Chicago School, Symbolic Interactionism, Sensitizing Concepts

Abstract

In this paper, we reflect upon our experiences taking a graduate qualitative methodology course with Dr. William (Billy) Shaffir. We highlight Billy’s approach to ethnographic research and his declaration to “just do it.” Rather than just absorbing theoretical knowledge from the literature, Billy taught us to be wary of the dangers of a prior theorization and how it can distort rather than shed light on empirical investigations. Despite his belief that sociological theory is far too often abstract and removed from real-world contexts, he nevertheless provided us with a latent theoretical commitment to concept formation, modification, and testing in the field that guides our research to this day. We explore Shaffir’s agnostic and at times ironic approach to theory and demonstrate how his specific type of theory-work, derived from Everett Hughes’ and Howard Becker’s interactionist perspective on “people doing things together,” influenced how many of his students study occupations and organizations via sensitizing concepts. Billy managed to get us to think differently about how we theorize in the field and how to cultivate a playful and healthy skeptical attitude towards its application. This type of agnostic-interactionism does not dismiss theory outright, but is always vigilant and mindful of how easy it is for practitioners of theory to slip into obfuscation and reification. We conclude with a Shaffir inspired theory-work that argues for the continuing significance of an agnostic stance towards ethnographic and qualitative inquiry; one that continues to sensitize the researcher to generic social processes through which agency-structure is mediated and accomplished.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Benjamin Kelly, Nipissing University, Canada

Benjamin Kelly is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Nipissing University, Canada. His main research interests are social theory, social psychology, social structure, identity, and emotions. His ongoing fieldwork looks at the lived experience of activist-scientists and their concerns surrounding environmental risk in relation to industry, government, public policy, and First Nations.

Michael Adorjan, University of Calgary, Canada

Michael Adorjan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary, and Fellow with the Center for Criminology, University of Hong Kong. He is currently a Principal Investigator (with Rose Ricciardelli, Memorial University) on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded Insight Development Grant examining youth and cyber-risk in Canada. His research and teaching focus on youth crime and cyber-risk, fear of crime, perceptions of police.

References

Adorjan, Michael. 2011a. “The Lens of Victim Contests and Youth Crime Stat Wars.” Symbolic Interaction 34(4):552-573.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.2011.34.4.552

Adorjan, Michael. 2011b. “Emotions Contests and Reflexivity in the News: Examining Discourse on Youth Crime in Canada.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 40(2): 168-198.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241610385456

Adorjan, Michael. 2016. “The Ethical Imagination: Reflections on Conducting Research in Hong Kong.” Pp. 36-51 in Engaging with Ethics in International Criminological Research, edited by M. Adorjan and R. Ricciardelli. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315675671

Adorjan, Michael et al. 2012. “Stockholm Syndrome as Vernacular Resource.” The Sociological Quarterly 53(3):454-474.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2012.01241.x

Albas, Cheryl and Daniel Albas. 2009. “Behind the Conceptual Scene of Student Life and Exams.” Pp. 125-140 in Ethnographies Revisited: Constructing Theory in the Field, edited by A. J. Puddephatt, W. Shaffir, and S. W. Kleinknecht. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Archibald, W. Peter, Benjamin Kelly, and Michael Adorjan. 2015. “From Total Institution to Status Bloodbath: Goffman as a Comparative Researcher and Grounded Theorist.” Qualitative Sociology Review 11(4):38-65.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.11.4.02

Becker, Howard. 1958. “Problems of Inference and Proof in Participant Observation.”American Sociological Review 23(6):652-660.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2089053

Becker, Howard. 1970. Sociological Work: Method and Substance. New York: Transaction Publishers.
Google Scholar

Becker, Howard. 1993. “How I Learned What a Crock Was.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22(1):28-35.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124193022001003

Becker, Howard. 1998. Tricks of the Trade. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Becker, Howard. 2008. Art Worlds: Updated and Expanded. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.
Google Scholar

Becker, Howard. 2017. Evidence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Becker, Howard and Alain Pessin. 2006. “A Dialogue on the Ideas of ‘World’ and ‘Field.’” Sociological Forum 21(2):275-286.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11206-006-9018-2

Becker, Howard et al. 1961. Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Becker, Howard et al. 1968. Institutions and the Person: Festschrift in Honor of Everett C. Hughes. Chicago: Aldine.
Google Scholar

Blumer, Herbert. 1954. “What Is Wrong with Social Theory?”American Sociological Review 19(1):3-10.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2088165

Blumer, Herbert. 1969. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Google Scholar

Chapoulie, Jean-Michel. 1996. “Everett Hughes and the Chicago Tradition.” Sociological Theory 14(1):3-29.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/202150

Clarke, Adele and Susan Star. 2008. “The Social Worlds Framework: A Theory/Methods Package.” The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies 3:113-137.
Google Scholar

Cooley, Charles H. 1964. Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Google Scholar

Edgerton, Robert. 1967. The Cloak of Competence: Stigma in the Lives of the Mentally Retarded. Berkeley, CA: University of Berkeley Press.
Google Scholar

Ferrales, Gabrielle and Gary Alan Fine. 2005. “Sociology as a Vocation: Reputations and Group Cultures in Graduate School.” The American Sociologist 36(2):57-75.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-005-1005-1

Fine, Gary Alan. 1991. “On the Macrofoundations of Microsociology: Constraint and the Exterior Reality of Structure.” Sociological Quarterly 32(2):161-177.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1991.tb00351.x

Fine, Gary Alan. 1993. “Ten Lies of Ethnography: Moral Dilemmas of Field Research.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22(3):267-294.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124193022003001

Fine, Gary Alan. 1995. A Second Chicago School? Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Geertz, Clifford. 1973. Thick Description: The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic.
Google Scholar

Grills, Scott. 1998. “An Invitation to the Field: Fieldwork and the Pragmatists’ Lesson.” Pp. 1-18 in Doing Ethnographic Research: Fieldwork Settings, edited by S. Grills. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Google Scholar

Grills, Scott and Robert Prus. 2019. Management Motifs: An Interactionist Approach for the Study of Organizational Interchange. Cham: Springer.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93429-7

Haas, Jack and William Shaffir. 1977. “The Professionalization of Medical Students: Developing Competence and a Cloak of Competence.” Symbolic Interaction 1(1):71-88.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1977.1.1.71

Haas, Jack and William Shaffir. 1982a. “Ritual Evaluation of Competence: The Hidden Curriculum of Professionalization in an Innovative Medical School Program.” Work and Occupations 9(2):131-154.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888482009002001

Haas, Jack and William Shaffir. 1982b. “Taking on the Role of Doctor: A Dramaturgical Analysis of Professionalization.” Symbolic Interaction 5(2):187-203.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1982.5.2.187

Haas, Jack and William Shaffir. 1984. “The ‘Fate of Idealism’ Revisited.” Urban Life 13(1):63-81.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0098303984013001004

Haas, Jack and William Shaffir. 1987. Becoming Doctors: The Professionalization of Medical Students. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
Google Scholar

Hamm, Mark and Jeff Ferrell. 1998. Ethnography at the Edge: Crime, Deviance, and Field Research. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Google Scholar

Hughes, Everett. 1970. “The Humble and the Proud: The Comparative Study of Occupations.” Sociological Quarterly 11:147-156.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1970.tb01440.x

Hughes, Everett. 1971. The Sociological Eye: Selected Papers. London: Transaction Publishers.
Google Scholar

Ibarra, Peter and Michael Adorjan. 2018. “Social Constructionism.” Pp. 279-301 in The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems, Vol. 1., edited by A. J. Treviño. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108656184.017

Kelly, Benjamin. 2010. “Exploring the Dilemma of Mutual Influence in Ethnographic Research.” Pp. 45-66 in Research Realities in the Social Sciences: Negotiating Fieldwork Dilemmas, edited by G. S. Szarycz. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.
Google Scholar

Kelly, Benjamin. 2011. “Addressing the Future Urban Water Crisis in Southern Ontario: An Ethnographic Look at the Promise of Expert-Lay Collaboration in Water Management Research.” Pp. 131-158 in Comparative Emergency Management: Examining Global and Regional Responses to Disasters, edited by D. Miller and J. Rivera. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1201/b10974-7

Kelly, Benjamin. 2017. “The Social Psychology of Compromised Negotiations: The Emergence of Asymmetrical Boundary Objects Between Science and Industry.” Pp. 192-205 in Microsociological Perspectives for Environmental Sociology, edited by B. Brewster and A. Puddephatt. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Kelly, Benjamin and W. Peter Archibald 2019. “Erving Goffman and the Evolutionary Ecological Missing Link.” Studies in Symbolic Interaction 50:141-168.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-239620190000050007

Kleinman, Sherryl and Matthew Ezzell. 2012. “Opposing ‘Both Sides’: Rhetoric, Reproductive Rights, and Control of a Campus Women’s Center.” Women’s Studies International Forum 35(6):403-414.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2012.08.002

Leigh, Jadwiga. 2017. “Recalcitrance, Compliance and the Presentation of Self: Exploring the Concept of Organisational Misbehaviour in an English Local Authority Child Protection Service.” Children and Youth Services Review 79:612-619.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.07.016

Low, Jacqueline and Gary Bowden (eds.). 2013. The Chicago School Diaspora: Epistemology and Substance. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Google Scholar

Low, Jacqueline and Gary Bowden. 2016. “Everett C. Hughes: A Key Figure of the Chicago School Diaspora.” Pp. 115-131 in The Anthem Companion to Everett C. Hughes, edited by R. HelmsHayes and M. Santoro. London: Anthem Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1hj9z7r.9

Luker, Kristen. 2009. Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1kmj7x0

Maines, David. 2001. The Faultline of Consciousness: A View of Interactionism in Sociology. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

McLuhan, Arthur et al. 2014. “The Cloak of Incompetence: A Neglected Concept in the Sociology of Everyday Life.” The American Sociologist 45(4):361-387.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-014-9240-y

Merton, Robert K. 1972. “Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge.” American Journal of Sociology 78(1):9-47.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/225294

Osho. 2002. Tao: The Pathless Path. New York: Renaissance Books.
Google Scholar

Pessin, Alain. 2017. The Sociology of Howard S. Becker: Theory with a Wide Horizon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226362991.001.0001

Prus, Robert. 1997. Subcultural Mosaics and Intersubjective Realities: An Ethnographic Research Agenda for Pragmatizing the Social Sciences. New York: State University of New York Press.
Google Scholar

Puddephatt, Antony, Benjamin Kelly, and Michael Adorjan. 2006. “Unveiling the Cloak of Competence.” The American Sociologist 37(3):84-98.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-006-1024-6

Puddephatt, Antony J., William Shaffir, and Steven W. Kleinknecht. 2009a. “Introduction: Exercises in Reflexivity: Situating Theory in Practice.” Pp. 1-34 in Ethnographies Revisited: Constructing Theory in the Field, edited by A. J. Puddephatt, W. Shaffir, and S. W. Kleinknecht. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Puddephatt, Antony J., William Shaffir, and Steven W. Kleinknecht. 2009b. “Working with Sensitizing Concepts.” Pp. 77-78 in Ethnographies Revisited: Constructing Theory in the Field, edited by A. J. Puddephatt, W. Shaffir, and S. W. Kleinknecht. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203876503

Ricciardelli, Rosemary, Michael Adorjan, and Adrienne Peters. 2019. “Increased Clarity or Continued Ambiguity? Correctional Officers’ Experiences of the Evolving Canadian Youth Justice Legislation.” Crime, Law and Social Change 71(5):503-523.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-018-9801-z

Sanders, Carrie. 2014. “Need to Know vs. Need to Share: Information Technology and the Intersecting work of Police, Fire and Paramedics.” Information, Communication & Society 17(4):463-475.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2014.891632

Santin, Marlene and Benjamin Kelly. 2017. “The Managed Heart Revisited: Exploring the Effect of Institutional Norms on the Emotional Labor of Flight Attendants Post 9/11.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 46(5):519-543.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241615619991

Shaffir, William. 1999. “Doing Ethnography: Reflections on Finding Your Way.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 28(6):676-686.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/089124199028006009

Shaffir, William and Dorothy Pawluch. 2003. “Occupations and Professions.” Pp. 893-913 in Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism, edited by L. Reynolds and N. Herman-Kinney. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press.
Google Scholar

Shaffir, William and Steven Kleinknecht. 2005. “Death at the Polls: Experiencing and Coping with Political Defeat.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 34(6):707-738.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241605279839

Spector, Malcolm. 1972. “The Rise and Fall of a Mobility Route.” Social Problems 20(2):173-185.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/799612

Spector, Malcolm. 2019. “Constructing Social Problems Forty Years Later.” The American Sociologist 50(2):175-181.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-018-9391-3

Spector, Malcolm and John Kitsuse. 2017. Constructing Social Problems. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315080512

Thomas, William I. and Dorothy S. Thomas. 1928. The Child in America: Behavior Problems and Programs. New York: AA Knopf.
Google Scholar

van den Hoonaard, Will C. 1997. Working with Sensitizing Concepts: Analytical Field Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

van den Hoonaard, Will C. 2009. “On Developing and Using Concepts in an Icelandic Field-Research Setting.” Pp. 92-104 in Ethnographies Revisited: Constructing Theory in the Field, edited by A. J. Puddephatt, W. Shaffir, and S. W. Kleinknecht. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

van den Hoonaard, Will C. 2013. Map Worlds: A History of Women in Cartography. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Google Scholar

van den Scott, Lisa-Jo K. and Deborah K. van den Hoonaard. 2016. “The Origins and Evolution of Everett Hughes’s Concept: ‘Master Status.’” Pp. 173-192 in The Anthem Companion to Everett Hughes, edited by R. Helmes-Hayes and M. Santoro. London: Anthem Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1hj9z7r.12

Whyte, William F. 2012. Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Woolgar, Steve and Dorothy Pawluch. 1985. “Ontological Gerrymandering: The Anatomy of Social Problems Explanations.” Social Problems 32(3):214-227
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/800680