Howard Becker: Telling About Society
Tuesday 18 September, 2007, 5.30-7pm
Cinema (Small Hall), Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths.
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The first Annual Methods Lab Lecture, organised by the Methods Lab, Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London.
THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED - NO MORE SPACES AVAILABLE
The Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths is pleased to welcome Howard S Becker to discuss his latest publication, Telling About Society (The University of Chicago Press ). This is the third book in Howard’s bestselling series of writing guides for social scientists; it explores the ways knowledge about society can be shared and interpreted through different forms of storytelling. Fiction, films, photographs, maps, and even mathematical models can be powerful tools in sharing knowledge—and yet many of these models remain outside the boundaries of conventional social science.
Eight cases studies, including Walker Evans’ photographs, George Bernard Shaw’s plays, the novels of Jane Austen and Italo Calvino, and the theories of Erving Goffman, provide convincing support for Becker’s argument: that every way of telling about society is perfect—for some purpose. The trick is, as Becker notes, to discover what purpose is served by doing it this way rather than that. With Becker’s trademark humour and eminently practical advice, Telling About Society is an ideal guide for social scientists in all fields and for anyone interested in communicating knowledge in unconventional ways.
Howard Becker lives and works in San Francisco. He is the author of many books, including Outsiders, Writing for Social Scientists and Tricks of the Trade, the latter two published by the University of Chicago Press. See more information about Howard Becker.