Abstract
There’s a joke in the original UK satirical comedy TV show, Yes, Prime Minster, about the portfolios of government ministers usually being entirely unsuited to their character, i.e. the Education Minster being illiterate and the Health Minister a dedicated smoker, etc., etc. There is an analogy with the task of this book – inviting leading interactionists (and hence qualitative researchers) to offer ‘behind the professional mask’ autobiographies. These authors are therefore experts in the tricks of their trade – in what presentation of self they elect to display. Candid or conservative? Front-stage professionalism or fecklessness? This review evaluates the results.
The selection includes leading SI scholars (Altheide, Atkinson, Charmaz, Clarke, Cook, Ellis, Hammersley, Johnson, Kotarba and Richardson). Notable absences include Becker, Denzin and key UK scholars such as Williams, Dingwall and Delamont (although Athens’ introduction does note some contributors withdrew). There is some ambiguity over what steer Athens, as guest editor, provided and he bemoans the literal interpretations of some (CVs rather than reflections). Yet, as one contributor notes, there is always a danger if you are still in the job, of risking your future career by excess revelation. None, of course, of these contributors is lacking in savvy, but the results differ remarkably – variously dry, angry, shocking, serendipitous and candid.
It does deliver some insights into interactionism, but largely by reading between the lines of the accounts. For example, the centrality of mentorship within the US system (around leading scholars, such as Strauss), the bluntness of the very label of interactionist (even sociologist) and the US preoccupation (legitimately enough) with tenure. The importance of SI as a discipline carried through its teachers, rather than through key texts, perhaps goes some way to explaining the lack of a UK interactional stronghold. Institutions – both good and bad – are mentioned as are the historical context (for instance, gender barriers, establishing a new research field, the headiness of the late 1960s, the baronial styles of leadership in some universities in days gone by and departments’ internal divisions). How scholars describe they reacted to setbacks as well as good fortune (poor reviews being a recurrent theme) will resonate with many academic readers and should help postgraduates measure their expectations.
Behind these scholars’ professional masks, there are delightful revelations and the very palpable pleasure in scholarship and collaboration mentioned by many – the passion for research. There are also some witty anecdotes of past career blunders and of learning-by-mistake and also the sting of encountering misconduct or bad practice amongst their fellow academic community. The young scholar will therefore find wisdom here.
So what does this collection contribute that we did not have available before? This is a rising genre (i.e. Becker, Rojek, Thrift and Urry all succumbing), which will not be of interest to all. Nevertheless, Athens has achieved some success in his determined pursuit of something beyond the conventional text. As many of the contributors’ accounts demonstrate, there is an overlap between private passions and academic work – a point that I and some of my peers agree with. As an undergraduate, I read the career reflections of the first generation of sociologists and it is therefore important that the second (third?) wave is similarly represented. Whether textual form was the most interesting way to go is another matter. Having had the pleasure of having a drink with several of the contributors at various conferences, the tales they tell face-to-face are good fun. Perhaps interacting with interactionists is a more fruitful way of understanding the approach than can be captured in a book.