The personal and social drama of work
The work of Everett C. Hughes
Abstract
The work of Everett C. Hughes (1897–1983) is barely known in Hungary. In the United States, too, he is on the periphery of the pantheon of sociology (Helmes-Hayes–Santoro 2016), his reputation and influence cannot be compared to his contemporaries such as Parsons or Lazarsfeld. The reason is that, unlike the latter, he did not systematically develop his theoretical or methodological principles. This was a conscious decision by Hughes. He believed that the anchorage of the methodological or theoretical framework would limit the understanding of the research subject, would be contrary to the ‘sociological imagination’ and could lead to dogmatism. In my study, I try to reconstruct and present Hughes’ theoretical and methodological foundations, based on the international literature and focusing on his research in the field of sociology of work. Indeed, these can be identified in his work and had a significant influence on his students - to mention only the best known - Goffman, Becker, Strauss, Whyte, in other words all those who are today considered the second generation of the Chicago School.
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