Everett C. Hughes

Abstract

This chapter explores the development of interactionism in the mind of Everett Hughes and the impact of his ideas related to human action and interaction as people live and work in society. Everett Hughes did stand on the shoulders of those interactionists before him and the legacy of those who founded the well-documented Chicago School of Sociology. The Chicago School, steeped in the human ecological thinking of Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, gave Hughes his lifelong focus on the importance of human interactions. This is why he would focus his attention on those permeable peripheries where people could make sense of their place in a variety of social situations. This chapter will also describe the great contributions Hughes made on his students at McGill University, the University of Chicago, Brandeis University, and Boston College. Unobtrusive observation was a key to allowing students to witness the many and subtle interactions that make up the research process. Hughes saw the necessity for his students to stay an extended time in the field in order to observe how people interact with others and give meaning to their daily lives at home, school, work, or play. He inspired several generations of sociologists to see the importance and benefits of the interactionist perspective in sociology.