Two Workshops with Gary Alan Fine on the Study of Group Action, Culture, and Frames

Programme

Workshop 10.15–12.00

Insights and Analytical Guidance from the Study of Small Group Interaction: A Q&A with Gary Alan Fine

Building on forty years of fieldwork, Professor Gary Alan Fine has long provided the best and most insistent reminder to social scientists to attend to the interactional fields of small groups in order to understand... well, anything.

The workshop begins with a Q&A session with Professor Fine (10:15-11:00), moderated by David Wästerfors. Workshop participants are invited to pose their questions to Professor Fine, and we kindly ask that questions be sent no later than June 6th to david [dot] wasterfors [at] soc [dot] lu [dot] se (david[dot]wasterfors[at]soc[dot]lu[dot]se).

Suggested topics for questions include, but are not limited to: 

• Access and data collection in relation to small groups and different social worlds,
• Choice of analytical concepts and theoretical perspectives,
• Analysis of ethnographic material,
• The art of writing up a social world

After a short break, we will continue the discussion, possibly divided into smaller groups depending on the number of participants.

Workshop 14.15–16.00

Frames and Framings: A Workshop on Goffman’s Frame Analysis

Last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of Erving Goffman’s Frame Analysis. Subtitled An Essay on the Organization of Experience, it is arguably his most profound and theoretically dense work.

In this workshop, we invite Professor Gary Alan Fine to discuss the relevance of Frame Analysis for social science research today. Once Goffman’s student, Fine is now among the key theorists and researchers in symbolic interactionist thinking worldwide. In his many ethnographies of small groups and local cultures, he has made significant contributions to our sociological understanding of what frame analysis is and what it might be.

The first part of the workshop will feature three short talks by scholars from Sociology, Information Studies, and Social Work. The second part will begin with initial reflections from Professor Fine before opening the floor to all participants. The workshop aims to foster collaborative thinking about the significance of Frame Analysis, with ample time provided for questions and discussions.

Short talks

Max Persson – Reality Contracts: Frame Analysis and Ideology
Cecilia Andersson – Artificial Conversation: Framing Interactions with Generative AI
Johan Fagerberg – Socialization as Construction of Frames: The Case of Social Work Students

Biography

Gary Alan Fine is a James E. Johnson Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, Chicago. He is major figure in the study of the work of Erving Goffman and symbolic interactionism.

Max Persson holds a PhD in Sociology and works as a postdoctoral researcher in Business Administration at Stockholm University. Max is an ethnographer with an interest in microsociology, economic elites, social class, and identity.

Cecilia Andersson holds a PhD in Information Studies and is a senior lecturer at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University. Cecilia has a broad interest in information searching in everyday life, with a particular focus on the use of search engines. She is currently investigating characteristics of legal and illegal online pharmacies.

Johan Fagerberg holds a PhD in Social Work and is a lecturer at Uppsala University. Johan is an ethnographer with a broad interest in the social work profession and education. Currently, he studies "involuntary social work," referring to how non-social workers, such as librarians and taxi drivers, manage visitors and customers with social problems 

Registration

Both workshops are open to anyone who wishes to attend and do not require pre-registration. However, if you would like fika, please register for the respective workshop before June 8^th.

• Register for fika here no later than 8 June

Organisers

Jonatan Nästesjö, postdoc in Science Studies, Halmstad University, affiliated with the Department of Educational Sciences, Lund University
David Wästerfors, Professor, Department of Sociology, Lund University

Welcome 13 June!

Arranged by: Lund Social Science Methods Centre