Howard S. Becker
Encyclopedia
Howard Saul Becker 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 cited as a symbolic interactionist or social constructionist, however he does not align himself exclusively 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
.
, 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.. He is a functionalist sociologist but also sympathies with Marxist argument. He is a strong believe in the fact that working class boys create their own destiny but having poor working class attitudes that allow them to be labelled by teachers in the education system.
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, but 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
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1993. Becker has also held visiting professor and scholar positions at The University of Manchester and Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.
In addition to his numerous publications, 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.
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
.
). 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
.
about qualitative research, Becker wrote a piece defending the methodology. In this piece he contends that properly conducted qualitative research is “a systematic, rigorous, theoretically informed investigative procedure.”
Becker’s contributions to qualitative methods include procedures for conducting participant observation and analytic induction
as well as the benefits and challenges of such research. In an effort to formalize the process, he explained the analysis of participant observation as a stepwise procedure. Four stages were included in his guide: “the selection and definition of problems, concepts, and indices; the check on the frequency and distribution of phenomena; … the incorporation of individual findings into a model of the organization under study [and finally] presentation of evidence and proof.”
Becker is also notable for coining the phrase "hierarchy of credibility." Becker introduced the term in order to expose the social inequalities and the moral hierarchy of our society and culture. He argued that those at the top of a society are seen as more credible, whereas those at the bottom of the society are often not viewed with credibility, and in fact, their opinions may be unvalidated or completely discredited. Becker argues that it is the scholar's responsibility to find evidence that supports the claims of society's least privileged.
In Tricks of the Trade, written in 1998, Becker argues for data collection that is systematic and full of deep, rigorous analysis. Ruth Horowitz claims that Becker “takes a sensible position for examining how our understandings of the social world...enter our research”. Sociology, as he describes it, is a creative process. Becker argues that social scientists embarking upon research must first question their underlying assumptions and imagery (Becker’s term for how our backgrounds in theory, our common sense knowledge, and our own personal experiences shape our understandings of the social world.
In 2007, Becker wrote what has been referred to as the third book in his series of “writing guides,” the first two being Writing for Social Scientists and Tricks of the Trade. In Telling About Society, 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.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sociologist
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
who made major contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art
Sociology of art
The Sociology of art is a subfield of sociology concerned with the social worlds of art and aesthetics.Studying the sociology of art throughout history is the study of the social history of art, how various societies contributed to the appearance of certain artists.In her 1970 book Meaning and...
, 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
Labeling theory
Labeling theory is closely related to interactionist and social construction theories. Labeling theory was developed by sociologists during the 1960's. Howard Saul Becker's book entitled Outsiders was extremely influential in the development of this theory and its rise to popularity...
. Becker is often cited as a symbolic interactionist or social constructionist, however he does not align himself exclusively 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
Erving Goffman
Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born sociologist and writer.The 73rd president of American Sociological Association, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical perspective that began with his 1959 book The Presentation of Self...
, Gary Fine and Anselm Strauss
Anselm Strauss
Anselm Leonard Strauss was an American sociologist internationally known as a medical sociologist and as the developer of grounded theory, an innovative method of qualitative analysis widely used in sociology, nursing, education, social work, and...
.
Biography
Becker was born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. As an undergraduate and later a graduate student at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, 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.. He is a functionalist sociologist but also sympathies with Marxist argument. He is a strong believe in the fact that working class boys create their own destiny but having poor working class attitudes that allow them to be labelled by teachers in the education system.
His professor, Everett C. Hughes
Everett Hughes
Everett Cherrington Hughes was an American sociologist best known for his work on ethnic relations, work and occupations and the methodology of fieldwork. His take on sociology was, however, very broad...
, 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, but 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
Deviance (sociology)
Deviance in a sociological context describes actions or behaviors that violate cultural norms including formally-enacted rules as well as informal violations of social norms...
and laid the foundation of labeling theory
Labeling theory
Labeling theory is closely related to interactionist and social construction theories. Labeling theory was developed by sociologists during the 1960's. Howard Saul Becker's book entitled Outsiders was extremely influential in the development of this theory and its rise to popularity...
. In that book he "said everything I have to say about labeling theory".
For his doctoral dissertation, Becker studied Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
schoolteachers. Generally speaking, his work reflects the prevailing thematic and theoretical preoccupations of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
sociology at that time, with its attention to symbolic interactions involving race, status, and power in the urban melting pot. Erving Goffman
Erving Goffman
Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born sociologist and writer.The 73rd president of American Sociological Association, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical perspective that began with his 1959 book The Presentation of Self...
was a contemporary of Becker's at Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, and their research interests and writing styles both reflect a similar formative milieu. Since that time, Becker, Goffman and others such as Anselm Strauss
Anselm Strauss
Anselm Leonard Strauss was an American sociologist internationally known as a medical sociologist and as the developer of grounded theory, an innovative method of qualitative analysis widely used in sociology, nursing, education, social work, and...
have become known as the "Second Chicago School
Chicago school
Chicago school may refer to:* Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago school * Chicago School of Professional Psychology...
"
After receiving his Ph.D. in Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
in 1951 he went on to teach in Sociology Departments at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, and the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
. However, the majority of his research, writing and teaching was in other fields of sociology, including but not limited to the sociology of art
Sociology of art
The Sociology of art is a subfield of sociology concerned with the social worlds of art and aesthetics.Studying the sociology of art throughout history is the study of the social history of art, how various societies contributed to the appearance of certain artists.In her 1970 book Meaning and...
, qualitative method
Qualitative research
Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts. Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such...
, visual sociology
Visual sociology
Visual sociology is an area of sociology concerned with the visual dimensions of social life. This subdiscipline is nurtured by the , which holds annual conferences and publishes the journal, ....
and the practice of research and writing (composition theory) in social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1993. Becker has also held visiting professor and scholar positions at The University of Manchester and Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.
In addition to his numerous publications, 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.
While he lives in San Francisco, Becker regularly sojourns in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, previously in the company of Alain Pessin, a sociologist at the University of Grenoble
University of Grenoble
University of Grenoble or Grenoble University was a university in Grenoble, France until 1970, when it was split into several different institutions:...
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
Elijah Anderson
Elijah Anderson is an American sociologist. He holds the William K. Lanman, Jr. Professorship in Sociology at Yale University, where he teaches and directs the Urban Ethnography Project. Anderson is one of the nation’s leading urban ethnographers and cultural theorists. He received his B.A. from...
and Mitchell Duneier
Mitchell Duneier
Mitchell Duneier is an American sociologist currently Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and regular Visiting Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York....
.
Writing Style
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 StyleThe Elements of Style
The Elements of Style , also known as Strunk & White, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is a prescriptive American English writing style guide comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and...
). His stylistic predilections betray his academic pedigree: at the time he was a student, sociologists at the University of Chicago embraced European positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
and Midwestern
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
pragmatism
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
. 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
The Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for American English published since 1906 by the University of Chicago Press. Its 16 editions have prescribed writing and citation styles widely used in publishing...
.
Contributions
Becker was part of an effort to legitimize the work of qualitative researchers who had faced criticisms about the value of their findings. In response to a report from the National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
about qualitative research, Becker wrote a piece defending the methodology. In this piece he contends that properly conducted qualitative research is “a systematic, rigorous, theoretically informed investigative procedure.”
Becker’s contributions to qualitative methods include procedures for conducting participant observation and analytic induction
Analytic induction
Analytic induction refers to a systematic examination of similarities between various social phenomena in order to develop concepts or ideas. Social scientists doing social research use analytic induction to search for those similarities in broad categories and then develop subcategories...
as well as the benefits and challenges of such research. In an effort to formalize the process, he explained the analysis of participant observation as a stepwise procedure. Four stages were included in his guide: “the selection and definition of problems, concepts, and indices; the check on the frequency and distribution of phenomena; … the incorporation of individual findings into a model of the organization under study [and finally] presentation of evidence and proof.”
Becker is also notable for coining the phrase "hierarchy of credibility." Becker introduced the term in order to expose the social inequalities and the moral hierarchy of our society and culture. He argued that those at the top of a society are seen as more credible, whereas those at the bottom of the society are often not viewed with credibility, and in fact, their opinions may be unvalidated or completely discredited. Becker argues that it is the scholar's responsibility to find evidence that supports the claims of society's least privileged.
In Tricks of the Trade, written in 1998, Becker argues for data collection that is systematic and full of deep, rigorous analysis. Ruth Horowitz claims that Becker “takes a sensible position for examining how our understandings of the social world...enter our research”. Sociology, as he describes it, is a creative process. Becker argues that social scientists embarking upon research must first question their underlying assumptions and imagery (Becker’s term for how our backgrounds in theory, our common sense knowledge, and our own personal experiences shape our understandings of the social world.
In 2007, Becker wrote what has been referred to as the third book in his series of “writing guides,” the first two being Writing for Social Scientists and Tricks of the Trade. In Telling About Society, 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.
1960s
- Boys in White: Student Culture in Medical School with Blanche Geer, Everett C. Hughes and Anselm Strauss (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961). ISBN 9780878556229
- Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. (New York: The Free Press, 1963). ISBN 9780684836355
- 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. ISBN 9781560008071
1970s
- Sociological Work: Method and Substance. (Chicago: Adline, 1970) collected papers, including two previously unpublished: "On Methodology" and "Field Work Evidence." ISBN 9780878556304
1980s
- Art Worlds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). ISBN 9780520256361
- 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). ISBN 9780810107236
1990s
- Tricks of the Trade: How to Think about Your Research While You're Doing It (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). ISBN 9780226041247 Excerpt
2000s
- 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.
1973-1994
- “Confusion of Values,” originally published in French as “La Confusion de Valeurs,” pp. 11–28 in Pierre-Michel Menger and Jean-Claude Passeron, eds., L’art de la recherche: Melanges, Paris: La Documentation Française, 1994.
- “Professionalism in Sociology: The Case of C. Wright Mills,” pp. 175–87 in Ray Rist, editor, The Democratic Imagination: Dialogues on the Work of Irving Louis Horowitz, New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1994.
- “American Popular Song,” pp. 9–18 in Ton Bevers, ed., Artists—Dealers—Consumers: On the Social World of Art, Hilversum: Verloren, 1994.
- “Children’s Conceptions of Money: Concepts and Social Organization,” in Social Organization and Social Process, David Maines, ed., Aldine Publishing Co., 1991, pp. 45–57.
- “Consciousness, Power and Drug Effects,” Society, 10 (May, 1973) pp. 26–31. A longer version appears in the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, 6 (January–March, 1974) pp. 67–76
1995-2004
- “Visual Evidence: A Seventh Man, the Specified Generalization, and the Work of the Reader” Visual Studies, (2002) 17, pp. 3–11.
- “Studying the New Media,” Qualitative Sociology 25 (3), 2002, pp. 337–43
- “Drugs: What Are They?” (Published in French as “Les drogues: que sont-elles?,” pp. 11–20 in Howard S. Becker, ed., Qu’est-ce qu’une drogue?, Anglet: Atlantica, 2001)
- “The Etiquette of Improvisation ,” Mind, Culture, and Activity, 7 (2000), pp. 171–76 and 197–200.
- “The Chicago School, So-Called,” Qualitative Sociology, 22 (1), 1999, pp. 3–12.
- “Talks Between Teachers,” (with Shirah Hecht), Qualitative Sociology, 20 (1997), pp. 565–79.
- “Hypertext Fiction,” pp. 67–81 in M. Lourdes Lima dos Santos, Cultura & Economia, Lisbon: Edicões do Instituto de Ciências Sociais, 1995.
- “The Power of Inertia,” Qualitative Sociology 18 (1995), pp. 301–309.
2004-2007
- “ASA Convention,” Social Psychology Quarterly, (2007) 4, pp. cover, 1–2.
- “How we deal with the people we study: ‘The Last Seminar’ revisited,” pp. 26–36 in David Downes, et. al. eds., Crime, Social Control and Human Rights, Cullompton: Willan Publishing, 2007
- "The Jazz Repertoire." Enonciation artistique et socialité. Edited by Jean-Philippe Uzel (Harmattan: Paris 2006), pp. 243–51.
- “The Lay Referral System: The Problem of Professional Power,” Knowledge, Work and Society, (2006) 4, pp. 65–76.
- “A Dialogue on the Ideas of ‘World’ and ‘Field’ with Alain Pessin,” Sociological Forum, 21 (2006), pp. 275–86.
- "The Jazz Repertoire," with Robert R. Faulkner, Sociologie de l'art (2005), pp. 15–24.
- “Inventer chemin faisant: comment j’ai écrit Les mondes de l’art” (“Making it up as you go along: How I Wrote Art Worlds,”) pp. 57–73 in Daniel Mercure, ed., L’analyse du social: Les modes d’explication, Quebec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2005.
- “Jazz Places,” pp. 17–27 in Andy Bennett and Richard A. Peterson, eds., Music Scenes: Local, Translocal, and Virtual, Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2004; and in French in Sociologie et Societé, 2004.
2008-
- "Learning to Observe in Chicago,” in Jean Peneff, La goût de l'observation (Paris: La Découverte, 2009), pp. 60–61, 76-77 and 126-27 (en français).
- "Twenty Three Thoughts About Youth." La marque jeune, edited by Marc-Olivier Gonseth, Yann Laville and Grégoire Mayor (Neuchâtel: Musée d'ethnographieNeuchâtel).
- "Studying Something You Are Part of: The View From the Bandstand," Ethnologie Française, XXXVIII (2008), pp. 15–21.
External links
- Becker, Howard (1967) Whose Side Are We On? Social Problems, 14 (Winter) pp. 239–47 http://www.leonardbeeghley.com/docs/SYG%206125/Becker,%20whose%20side%20are%20we%20on.pdf
- Howard S. Becker's website http://home.earthlink.net/~hsbecker/
- Howard S. Becker's Curriculum Vitae http://home.earthlink.net/~hsbecker/vita.html