http://hdl.handle.net/11089/38308 2026-04-17T18:56:35Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/38375 Active Interview Tactics Revisited: A Multigenerational Perspective Hathaway, Andrew D.; Sommers, Rory; Mostaghim, Amir William (Billy) Shaffir taught about what it means to be a true empiricist, a sociologist committed to naturalistic observation as the most incisive method in our scientific toolbox. His inspiration still resonates, two decades later, in the work of new emerging scholars with the same commitment to ethnography—or what Billy more modestly and wisely calls “hanging around.” This paper is a tribute to his legacy that highlights the contributions of the next generation of graduate students that the lead author has been privileged to mentor at the University of Guelph. It builds on work by Hathaway and Atkinson on tactics of active interviewing to establish a more nuanced understanding of the benefits and challenges of being recognized as either an “insider” or “outsider,” and the implications of attempting to be both. 2020-04-30T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/38374 Piecing Together the Meaning of “Dirty Work” Torelli, Julian I reflect upon Dr. William Shaffir’s influence on my approach to ethnographic research and my study of homeless shelter workers. Dr. Shaffir introduced me to his own brand of the craft of qualitative field work, but also introduced me to important sociologists and ideas in the symbolic interactionist tradition. Most central was Everett C. Hughes’ notion of “dirty work,” which helped shape my research focus. Building from Hughes’ concept, but expanding it with Shaffir and Pawluch’s (2003) social constructionist approach to occupations, I was better able to conceptualize the process of how workers themselves piece together the meaning of “dirty work.” Beyond gaining these conceptual insights, I also reflect on Dr. Shaffir’s teaching philosophy of qualitative methods, that is, the importance of learning by doing. I conclude with some thoughts regarding Shaffir’s perspective on the wider ethnographic task of describing, in situ, members’ understandings and definitions. Following Everett Hughes, I call on interactionists to give more attention to “dirty work” as a generic and transcontextual process.     2020-04-30T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/38372 Feigning Incompetence in the Field McLuhan, Arthur A basic feature of professions is specialized competence. Indeed, expertise grants professions and their members privileged, prestigious, and protected statuses. Members of professions thus face interactional pressure to appear competent in encounters with colleagues, clients, and lay publics, demonstrating that they, indeed, have the particular competencies expected of and associated with their position. For example, in a classic study of professionalization, Jack Haas and William Shaffir examine how medical students adopt a cloak of competence—presenting more-than-fully-able selves—in their training and work to convince gatekeepers, each other, and patients that they have the ability to do medicine. Similar competence-enhancing presentations are evident in other professions. However, a related dramaturgical phenomenon remains neglected: adopting a cloak of incompetence—presenting less-than-fully-able selves—in performing the professional role. Using the ethnographer’s work as an illustrative case, the following paper examines this other side of managing professional competence. 2020-04-30T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/38373 Agnostic Interactionism and Sensitizing Concepts in the 21st Century: Developing Shaffirian Theory-Work in Ethnographic Research Kelly, Benjamin; Adorjan, Michael In this paper, we reflect upon our experiences taking a graduate qualitative methodology course with Dr. William (Billy) Shaffir. We highlight Billy’s approach to ethnographic research and his declaration to “just do it.” Rather than just absorbing theoretical knowledge from the literature, Billy taught us to be wary of the dangers of a prior theorization and how it can distort rather than shed light on empirical investigations. Despite his belief that sociological theory is far too often abstract and removed from real-world contexts, he nevertheless provided us with a latent theoretical commitment to concept formation, modification, and testing in the field that guides our research to this day. We explore Shaffir’s agnostic and at times ironic approach to theory and demonstrate how his specific type of theory-work, derived from Everett Hughes’ and Howard Becker’s interactionist perspective on “people doing things together,” influenced how many of his students study occupations and organizations via sensitizing concepts. Billy managed to get us to think differently about how we theorize in the field and how to cultivate a playful and healthy skeptical attitude towards its application. This type of agnostic-interactionism does not dismiss theory outright, but is always vigilant and mindful of how easy it is for practitioners of theory to slip into obfuscation and reification. We conclude with a Shaffir inspired theory-work that argues for the continuing significance of an agnostic stance towards ethnographic and qualitative inquiry; one that continues to sensitize the researcher to generic social processes through which agency-structure is mediated and accomplished.    2020-04-30T00:00:00Z