Howard S. Becker

About the author

Howard Saul Becker (1928–2023) was an American sociologist whose work reshaped how scholars think about deviance, art, and music. A University of Chicago graduate and key figure in the second Chicago School — alongside Erving Goffman and Anselm Strauss — he taught at Northwestern University and is best known for his 1963 book Outsiders, which laid the foundations for labeling theory. Becker also wrote extensively on sociological writing and methodology.

Though often labeled a symbolic interactionist or social constructionist, he resisted both designations.