Carl J Couch was a founding member of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and a driving force of the Iowa School of Symbolic Interaction. This title includes essays that are written to honour his life and his life's work.

Part 1 Carl Couch and the extension of symbolic interaction: Carl Couch, pragmatism and the democratic tradition, Boyd Littrell; rendering obdurate features of Couchian epistemology, Steve McGurie; stereotypes of crowds and collective behaviours - looking backward, looking forward, Clare McPhail; alienation - extending an interactionist conceptualization, William A. Reese. Part 2 Elementary social forms and relationships: the foundations of social interaction, Dan E. Miller and Robert A. Hintz; elementary forms and the process of opening, part 1 - autocratic activity, the chase and the contest, Robert A. Hintz; the intertwining of accounts and negotiations - a new Iowa school approach, Mary E. Rohlfing. Part 3 Constructing complexity and extending conceptions: extending Couch's thesis of romance as a complex accomplishment, Michael A. Katovich; the electronic place - from telepresence to copresence, David L. Altheide; Carl Couch and the formal sociology of communication technology, Sing-Ling S. Chen; credentials, reputation, celebrity and notoriety in the martial arts, John Worden and Joel Powell Dahlquist; "evocative transformations" - a neglected concept in the analysis of situated emotions, Virginia L. Elesen; shoppers as elusive targets - reluctant involvements, evasive tactics and the influence process, Robert Prus. Part 4 Reflections: a reply to Getrude, Robert Stewart; they'll know he was here but he'll never leave, Norman K. Denzin. Part 5 Closing.