Abstract
This special section is a brief consideration of the importance of the sociologist Howard Becker to critical work on organizations. Becker’s work is extremely well known in sociology and criminology but probably less so for readers of this journal, being instead one of those names recited as part of a list when North American ‘symbolic interactionism’ is being name-checked. I think that this is effectively to overlook a writer who has much to say to Critical Management Studies in its many forms. Indeed, it might well be that we could describe Becker as an organization theorist or, even more strongly, as a critical organization theorist whose work in a wide variety of areas—deviance, art, photography, education, writing, methods—can enrich the sort of things we think about in the pages of Organization.
This section comprises of three papers. First, a 2011 interview with Becker which is introduced by the team of people who conducted it. This was arranged for an event on ‘Art and Restructuring’ in Paris and was the origin of the idea for this special section. Second, an essay by Jason Hughes, a sociologist who knows ‘Howie’ (as he insists on being called) and has worked with Becker’s ideas for some time and who interviewed him again for this piece. Finally, a short reflection on both these pieces by Bob Cluley, who works in an UK business school but wrote his PhD relying heavily on Becker’s work. We hope this little collection encourages you to find out more about the ideas of a thinker whose work is both beautifully expressed and important for anyone who wants to challenge common sense ways of thinking about organizing.