Doing Modernity: Studies in Critical Interactionism

A Call for Comprehensive Biographical Assessment of Harvey Sacks: Recovering the Man Behind the Revolutionary Method A Significant Loss to the History of Sociology In the landscape of twentieth-century sociology, no figure has been more foundational yet more biographically neglected than Harvey Sacks. The field of sociology has suffered a profound biographical amnesia regarding one of its most transformative figures. Harvey Sacks (1935-1975), the founder of conversation analysis and pioneer of micro-sociological methodology, remains a scholarly ghost—his revolutionary contributions celebrated while the man himself remains virtually unknown. This represents a significant loss to the history of sociology, one that demands immediate and sustained scholarly attention. The Goffman Standard: What Biographical Completeness Looks Like To understand the magnitude of this loss, we need only examine the biographical treatment accorded to Sacks' contemporary, Erving Goffman. The University of ...

                                          Harvey Molotch and the Foundations of Critical Interactionism:   Structure, Interaction, and the Compulsion of Proximity Wayne Martin Mellinger, Ph.D. DRAFT Abstract This paper reinterprets Harvey Molotch's contributions to ethnomethodology and interactional sociology as foundational steps toward a broader framework of Critical Interactionism. While rooted in ethnomethodology's core commitments to situated interaction, indexicality, and member accountability, Molotch pushes the tradition beyond methodological minimalism to address structural power, domination, and material inequalities. Through detailed analysis of four pivotal works—News as Purposive Behavior, Talking Social Structure, The Compulsion of Proximity, and Talking City Trouble—this paper argues that Molotch develops a hybrid approach that ties the sequent...