ABSTRACT
Howard Becker has published five books of advice on "methodology," without counting various prefaces or presentations. In these, he sets out, with passion, an original position on how to improve teaching and the craft skills of researchers. Becker had a main theme: a book, an event, something in the news, an incident in the university, a dissertation or a piece of work by a student. He focused the discussion on some unexpected aspect of the social world that would be known to the audience. Becker appreciates the "method" of Nicolas Hatzfeld who carried out two periods of participant observation on the same assembly line at Peugeot ten years apart. When he returned, he was, as an "independent" university researcher, able to get unfettered access to the archives of the trade unions and the management. Becker approved the idea of beginning observations as a paramedic coming into a hospital and ending up in the cellars, examining the organization's archives.
