Favorite Sociologists

[gingin6789]

Hey all!

 

This is my first shot at making a thread, so I just wanna know ... who are your favorite sociologists?  Is Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" the only thing that gets you through the holiday consumerist madness?  Does the eloquence and depth of W.E.B. DuBois' "Second Self" make you weep with appreciation?  How about the fascinating, rich studies on the complex, emotionally draining everyday lives of drug dealers by Peter and Patricia Adler (or perhaps their study on "the gloried self" of college athletes)?  Does Goffman's "Stigma" resonate within your very soul because -- let's face it -- we're all discreditable?

 

Voice your love for sociologists here. I hope this helps cut some of the anxious waiting game energy that we've been experiencing (or at least I have been experiencing).  

 

I personally love DuBois and Goffman!  

 

[if this topic doesn't belong here somehow, let me know! I got the idea from the Philosophy forum where this kind of thread was quite popular!]

[ohgoodness]

I know this isn't sexy as the big names but my crush from last years theory course is Mayer Zald.    The guy was supposedly extremely nice, always full of positive praise and criticisms, and resource mobilization theory is such a nice thing.   I am rather shocked about this since I am a social demographer and should not really get a crush on someone doings movements and organizations..

 

 

From the canon then I'd vote for Becker, Beck,  Elder and Foucault.   Family and life course is the stuff of stars. 

Edited February 13, 2014 by ohgoodness

[gingin6789]

Ohgoodness, this Zald sounds like someone I should check out!!  Your other choices sound great as well. =) 

[AsdfEfnasdf]

Howie Becker, for this article: http://www.medanthro.net/adtsg/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Becker-Becoming-Marihuana-User.pdf

[ohgoodness]

Hah! The most boring man in Sociology speaking out against ascribed deviation!  I'm impressed.  but then on the first page

[SocGirl2013]

Loving all the Becker loving.

I like Durkheim. I'm a rabid Marxist, too.

Bourdeiu, Foucault, Wallerstein. Very much Wallerstein (Binghamton if you're reading this, TAKE ME NOW THANKS). 

[onehardtaco]

Throwback vote: W. I. Thomas

 

Current vote: Michael Messner, Ben Carrington

[ohgoodness]

Wow I just realized that my Becker might be seen as Howie..  I am obviously a fan of Gary and not Howie.  

[SocGirl2013]

Yeah I was totally referring to Howard Becker lol

[onehardtaco]

So many Beckers in sociology

[gingin6789]

Bourdieu!!! Forgot to include him!!

 

These days, I also enjoy the work of Gayle Sulik and her critical look at the pink ribbon industry.  We read her book in sociology of health, and I got to meet her in Nashville last week.  When my thesis advisor introduced me, I told Gayle, "I need a hug from you."

 

...I wish I could hug all of my favorite sociologists ...  

Edited February 13, 2014 by gingin6789

[WordlTraveler]

I love Wallerstein and met him when I was in my first year of undergrad. Then of course Foucault, Bourdieu.

[SocGirl2013]

I love Wallerstein and met him when I was in my first year of undergrad. Then of course Foucault, Bourdieu.

TELL ME EVERYTHING.

[surefire]

 

I personally love DuBois and Goffman!  

 

Goffman! Yes!

I'm doing some socio-legal stuff on remorse and apologies in medical malpractice and Goffman's notion of "remedial work" from Relations in Public has been really conceptually helpful of late!

 

For those who like Howie Becker: his Writing for Social Scientists, while a bit dated at times, is a great read for those of us figuring out how to write (and rewrite, and rewrite again) in the discipline.

 

To the OP: if you like the Adlers' studies on drug dealers, you should try Righteous Dopefiend by Phillipe Bourgois, it's an illuminating piece in both subject and method.

 

I'm also a big fan of Durkheim. Despite its problems, Suicide is an amazing text for its early conceptualization of the potential of sociology!

 

Also: Garfinkle totally lights my fire! Reading pieces on the breaching experiments STILL totally ignites my imagination/makes me squirm. I think it would be a neat endeavour to re-conceptualize some of those projects and try to get them through an ethics review (anyone working in "the sociology of sociology" who wants to give that a shot?).

 

Oh! And Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I KNOW, I KNOW, there's some problematic racial stuff there, but have you read "The Yellow Wallpaper"? I've been known to assign it for extra credit readings, it generates GREAT discussion from the undergrads who often find some of the older theorists to be inaccessble.

 

That is fun! Good thread!

[mlb86]

Goffman! Yes!

I'm doing some socio-legal stuff on remorse and apologies in medical malpractice and Goffman's notion of "remedial work" from Relations in Public has been really conceptually helpful of late!

 

For those who like Howie Becker: his Writing for Social Scientists, while a bit dated at times, is a great read for those of us figuring out how to write (and rewrite, and rewrite again) in the discipline.

 

To the OP: if you like the Adlers' studies on drug dealers, you should try Righteous Dopefiend by Phillipe Bourgois, it's an illuminating piece in both subject and method.

 

I'm also a big fan of Durkheim. Despite its problems, Suicide is an amazing text for its early conceptualization of the potential of sociology!

 

Also: Garfinkle totally lights my fire! Reading pieces on the breaching experiments STILL totally ignites my imagination/makes me squirm. I think it would be a neat endeavour to re-conceptualize some of those projects and try to get them through an ethics review (anyone working in "the sociology of sociology" who wants to give that a shot?).

 

Oh! And Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I KNOW, I KNOW, there's some problematic racial stuff there, but have you read "The Yellow Wallpaper"? I've been known to assign it for extra credit readings, it generates GREAT discussion from the undergrads who often find some of the older theorists to be inaccessble.

 

That is fun! Good thread!

Hi Surefire,

 

I actually wrote a small paper on breaching experiments that you might be interested in!  It's going to be in Teaching Sociology in a couple months but you can find it online already:

 

http://tso.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/02/03/0092055X14521021.full

 

I hope it's interesting and that I don't come off like an obnoxious self-promoter!  (I am being a self-promoter; there's really no two ways about that, but I hope I'm not being obnoxious about it.)

[WordlTraveler]

TELL ME EVERYTHING.

So, back then I was 17, just started my sociology undergrad in Armenia, and there was this World Congress of Sociology happening at my university in Armenia and Wallerstein was present. I just got back from US after studying one year in high school, so because of my English skills I was approached to volunteer and help guests. For the opening ceremony, I approached his wife and him and asked to take front row, he kindly refused, saying he is fine sitting in the back as well.  He also gave a lecture for the students and we interacted at the sessions. Amazing memories. Back then I didn't even realize how big he is!

[WordlTraveler]

I also met Luckmann in Germany and also visited to Max Weber's house in Germany!!!

[SocGirl2013]

So, back then I was 17, just started my sociology undergrad in Armenia, and there was this World Congress of Sociology happening at my university in Armenia and Wallerstein was present. I just got back from US after studying one year in high school, so because of my English skills I was approached to volunteer and help guests. For the opening ceremony, I approached his wife and him and asked to take front row, he kindly refused, saying he is fine sitting in the back as well.  He also gave a lecture for the students and we interacted at the sessions. Amazing memories. Back then I didn't even realize how big he is!

Wow. How incredible. 

[RefurbedScientist]

Interesting thread. How about living, or at least more recent, sociologists? 

[Whatishistoryanyway]

William I. Robinson at UCSB! Man, I need to get off this wait list haha.

[thatsociologist]

I'm a huge fan of Patricia Hill Collins. I got to meet her and get her to sign her most recent book back in 2012 at the National Women's Studies Association's Annual conference. It was amazing. She was amazing.

[Maleficent999]

I adore Andrea Beckmann and the work she has done and continues to do. I wish she worked at a US institution because I would camp outside the department office until they accepted me. If "The Social Construction of Sexuality and Perversion" wasn't so expensive, I would have it sleep next to me in bed.

 

That is all.

[Darth.Vegan]

Phil McMichael, Jack Kloppenburg and Raj Patel.

[jim1986]

Marx because to this day, we're still experiencing everything he predicted in terms of exploitation of the proletariat on the part of the bourgeois. I mean look at what happened this season during black friday, need I say more?

[RefurbedScientist]

Marx because to this day, we're still experiencing everything he predicted in terms of exploitation of the proletariat on the part of the bourgeois. I mean look at what happened this season during black friday, need I say more?

Unfortunately a few of his big predictions didn't come to pass though