New on Early View: Bryce Merrill’s review of Aldrege’s “Singer-Songwriters and Musical Open-Mics” #sssi #music

Open-Mic nights have become again popular evening activity in many cities all over the world. Marcus Aldredge has written “a vivid and empathetic depiction of the social life of open mics”, argues Bruce Merrill in his review “Recommended if You Like: Scenes, Maker Culture, and Music Sociology” just published on Early View.

Merrill particularly praises that Aldredge manages to link his analysis to developments in contemporary culture, such as the “maker culture”. He recommends the book not only to interactionists but in particular also for “teaching cultural sociology, urban studies, and even urban planning or arts administration”.

More books to Review: Innovative Ethnographies #sssi

Phillip Vannini (Royal Roads University) gave the 2014 Distinguished Lecture at the SSSI Conference in San Francisco. In his talk Phillip presented findings from his research on people living off the grid in Canada. This research now has been published as part of the “Innovative Ethnographies” series he edits with Routledge.

If any of you would be interested to review Phillip’s most recent book “Off the Grid” or other books from the series for Symbolic Interaction please do get in touch with me at

dirk.vom_lehn@kcl.ac.uk

New Books for Review! First come, first served! #sssi

I have received a number of books that I’d like to have reviewed over the coming few months. If you are interested please contact me at dirk.vom_lehn@kcl.ac.uk

 both assigned

  assigned

  assigned

 assigned

  assigned

 

 assigned

  assigned

 assigned

  

   assigned

If you have other books you would like to review for Symbolic Interaction please do contact me:

dirk.vom_lehn@kcl.ac.uk

On Early View: Jamie Mullaney’s Review of Asia Friedman’s “Blind to Sameness”

In her review “Opening Our Eyes to Sex Perception” Jamie Mullaney describes Asia Friedman’s book “Blind to Sameness” as “a fascinating, unique, and important contribution the fields of sex and gender, sociology of the senses, sociology of the body, and cognitive sociology”. The book links neatly up to long-standing debates about performing gender, yet shifts the perspective by examining how people come to observe gender differences. Mullaney’s review can be downloaded here:

Early View: Andrew P Carlin’s Review of ‘Harold Garfinkel. The Creation and Development of Ethnomethodology.’

Ethnomethodology has been seen as difficult to digest and access by students. Moreover, those pursuing ethnomethodology have been dissatisfied with the characterisation of their sociological attitude and with the view by some sociologists that ethnomethodology is a marginal and peripheral area of investigation. Andrew P. Carlin’s review “Re-Assembling a Corpus: Garfinkel’s Ethnomethodology and Intellectual History” of  Dirk vom Lehn’s book “Harold Garfinkel. The Creation and Development of Ethnomethodology” highlights that

that “vom Lehn performs a great service not just to students but also to researchers in setting out Garfinkelian arguments, on a range of conceptual issues, which have remained unavailable to interested readers for decades.” 

[Disclaimer: Dirk vom Lehn has written this summary of Andrew P. Carlin’s review. He had no influence on the review]

Book Review on Early View: Scott Grills – Becoming Professors: The Scholarly Life and the Liberal Arts Campus #sssi #education

According to Scott Grills of “Roads Taken: The Professional Life, Scholarship in Place, and the Public Good” edited by Roger Epp and Bill Spellman is an “eclectic volume [that] captures the personal narratives of scholars whose life and work has been, at least in part, carried out in the context of small, public, liberal arts universities and colleges in the United States and Canada”.

The review provides a thorough discussion of various themes covered by the chapters collected in the volume. “Experiencing Stigma, Doing Eclectic Scholarship, The Student–Teacher Relationship, The Problem of Place, and Scholarship in a Community Context”. The review can be downloaded here.

Book Review On Early View: Victoria Rodner – New books on Constructivism and Grounded Theory #sssi #methods

There is a large interest in qualitative research methods and an ever expanding body of textbooks and research methods books devoted to different methods to analyse qualitative data. Amongst the research approaches and methods that are of particular interest are those devoted to “constructivism” and “grounded theory”. Here, Victoria Rodner has reviewed to recent publications: The Constructivist Credo by Yvonna S. Lincoln and Egon G. Guba and Rediscovering Grounded Theory by Barry Gibson and Jan Hartman. Both books in their own ways explain underlying theories as well as the research approach and practice when engaged in actual research projects. With regards to both books Rodner highlights their respective contributions. The review, “Finding the Perfect Fit—Paradigmatic Choices for Novice and Experienced Qualitative Researchers” can be downloaded here.