CONTENTS Notes on contributors x Preface xviii Introduction: Exercises in reflexivity: situating theory in practice 1 ANTONY PUDDEPHATT, WILLIAM SHAFFIR AND STEVEN KLEINKNECHT PART IGenerating grounded theory 35 1Learning how to speak of sadness 37 DAVID A. KARP 2Recollecting good and bad days 48 KATHYCHARMAZ 3Colorful writing: conducting and living with a tattoo ethnography 63 CLINTON R. SANDERS PART II Working with sensitizing concepts 77 4Improvising on sensitizing concepts 79 ROBERT R. FAULKNER 5On developing and using concepts in an Icelandic field-research setting 92 WILL C. VAN DEN HOONAARD 6Behind the conceptual scene of Student Life and Exams 105 DANIEL ALBAS AND CHERYL ALBAS 7How Murray Manor became an ethnography 121 JABER F. GUBRIUM PART III Extending theoretical frames 135 8Habitus as topic and tool: reflections on becoming a prizefighter 137 LOIC WACQUANT 9Researching alcoholics and alcoholism in American society 152 NORMAN K. DENZ1N 10 The development of leisure theory in three nature-challenge hobbies 169 ROBERT A. STEBB1NS 11 Telling tales about how concepts develop: stories from ethnographic encounters with the Moog synthesizer 180 TREVOR PINCH PART IVConceptualizing community and social organization 195 12 The ethnography behind Defenders of the Faith 197 SAMUEL HEILMAN 13 On piecing the puzzle: researching Hassidic Jews 212 WILLIAM SHAFFIR 14 Using a gestalt perspective to analyze children's worlds 225 PATRICIA A. ADLER AND PETER ADLER 15 Hookers, Rounders and Desk Clerks: encountering the reality of the hotel community 238 ROBERT PRUS PART V Challenging established wisdom 251 16 Making theories from water; or, finding stratification in competitive swimming 253 DANIEL F. CHAMBLISS 17 Solving the mysteries of shelter work for the battered woman 263 DONILEEN R. LOSEKE 18 The path taken: opportunity, flexibility, and reflexivity in the field 277 JENNIFER L. DUNN 19 Walking the talk: doing Gravity's Shadow 289 HARRY COLLINS PART VITheorizing from alternative data: documentary, historical, and autobiographical sources 305 20 Writing theory in(to) Last Writes 307 LAUREL RICHARDSON 21 Conceptualizing a profession in process: The New Pediatrics revisited 318 DOROTHY PAWLUCH 22 The history, myth, and science of Masada: the making of an historical ethnography 331 NACHMAN BEN-Y EHUDA Index 347