Everett C Hughes had a great impact on the field of sociology as a whole and on an entire generation of sociologists. This book contains essays that address the main themes in his work over the years, and illustrates Hughes' impact on the contributors, many of whom are themselves senior figures in the field.

I: The World of Work; 1: Sociological Perspectives on Occupations; 2: Reorganization and Accommodation: A Case in Industry; 3: The Impurity of Professional Authority; 4: Human Relations versus Management; 5: The Union-Organizing Campaign as a Problem of Social Distance: Three Crucial Dimensions of Affiliation-Disaffiliation; II: Racial and Cultural Contacts; 6: “We Distinguish-They Discriminate”: Observations on Race Relations; 7: French-Canadian Engineers; 8: The Silent Sufferers: The Lecturer’s Role in Student Unrest in India; 9: The Enemies of the People; 10: The Impurity of Professional Authority; III: Organizations; 11: Internal Differentiation and the Establishment of Organizations; 12: Crisis in an Institutional Network: Community Health Care; 13: Innovation in Higher Education: Notes on Student and Faculty Encounters in Three New Colleges; 14: Crisis in an Institutional Network: Community Health Care; 15: The Phoenix and the Ashes; I: Institutions and the person; 16: Occupational Commitment and the Teaching Profession; 17: Professional Socialization as Subjective Experience: The Process of Doctrinal Conversion among Student Nurses; 18: Shared Ordeal and Induction to Work; 19: Some Neglected Properties of Status Passage; 20: History, Culture, and Subjective Experience: An Exploration of the Social Bases of Drug-Induced Experiences; V: Problems of Method; 21: The Neglected Situation; 22: The Participant-Observer as a Human Being: Observations on the Personal Aspects of Field Work; 23: Asking Questions Cross-Culturally: Some Problems of Linguistic Comparability; 24: Issues in Holistic Research; 25: Stuff and Nonsense about Social Surveys and Observation