www.ssoar.info "Trajectory" as a basic theoretical concept for analyzing suffering and disorderly social processes Riemann, Gerhard; Schütze, Fritz Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Sammelwerksbeitrag / collection article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Riemann, G., & Schütze, F. (1991). "Trajectory" as a basic theoretical concept for analyzing suffering and disorderly social processes. In D. R. Maines (Ed.), Social organization and social process : essays in honor of Anselm Strauss (pp. 333-357). New York: de Gruyter. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-7214 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL ORDER An Aldine de Cruyter Series of Texts and Monographs Series Editor David R. Maines, Pennsylvania State University SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Advisory Editors Bruce Cronbeck Peter K. Manning William K. Rawlins AND SOCIAL PROCESS David L. Altheide, An Ecology of Communication: Cultural Formats of Control Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss David L. Altheide and Robert Snow, Media Worlds in the Era of Postjournalism Joseph Bensman and Robert Lilienfeld, Craft and Consciousness: Occupational Technique and the Development of World Images (Second Edition) Valerie Malhotra Bentz, Becoming Mature: Childhood Ghosts and Spirits in Adult Life Herbert Blumer, Industrialization as an Agent of Social Change: A Critical Analysis David R. Maines (Edited with an Introduction by David R. Maines and Thomas I. Morrione) Dennis Brissett and Charles Edgley (editors), Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical Editor Sourcebook (Second Edition) Richard Harvey Brown (editor), Writing the Social Text: Poetics and politics in Social Science Discourse Joo-Hyun Cho, Family Violence in Korea Norman K. Denzin, The Alcoholic Family Norman K. Denzin, Hollywood Shot by Shot: Alcoholism in American cinema Irwin Deutscher, Fred P. Pestello, and Frances G. Pestello, Sentiments and Ads Bruce E. Gronbeck, Sociocultural Dimensions of Rhetoric and Communication 1. T. Hansen, Michael Patrick Madden, and A. Susan Owen, (editors), Parallels: The Soldiers' Knowledge and the Oral History of Contemporary Warfare Emrnanuel Lazega, Communication and Interaction in Work Groups David R. Maines (editor), Social Organization and Social Process: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss David R. Maines, Time and Social Process: Gender, Life Course, and Social Organi- zation Peter K. Manning, Organizational Communication Stjepan G. MCstrovit, Durkheim and Postmodemist Culture R. S. Perinbanayagam, Discursive Acts William Keith Rawlins, Friendship Matters: Communication, Dialectics, and the Life Course Vladimir Shlapentokh and Dmitry Shlapentokh, Ideological Trends in Soviet Movies Jim Thomas, Communicating Prison Culture: The Deconstruction of Social Existence Iacqueline P. Wiseman, The Other Half: Wives of Alcoholics and Their Social- ALDINE DE GRUMER Psychological Situation New York ABOUT THE EDITOR David R. Maines is Associate Professor of Sociology at Pennsylvania State University. CONTENTS His work has focused on articulating issues of social organization and social struc- ture from an interactionist perspective as well as the fundamental relevance of temporality and communication for the development of social theory. He is the current Editor of the journal Symbolic Interaction, and his recent books include List of Contributors ix Communication and Social Structure (with Carl Couch), Friendship in Context (with Helena Z. Lopata), and Industrialization as an Agent of Social Change: A Critical Analysis by Herbert Blumer (with Thomas I. Morrione). His current research focuses on the narrative aspects of social life. PART I. INTRODUCTION 1. Reflections, Framings, and Appreciations Copyright O 1991 Walter de Gruyter, Inc., New York David Maines All rights resewed. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in R. any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, record- ing, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing 2. In Honor of Anselm Strauss: Collaboration from the publisher. Barney C. Claser ALDINE DE GRUYTER A division of Walter de Gruyter, Inc. 3. Anselm Strauss: An Intellectual Biography 200 Saw Mill River Road luliet Corbin Hawthorne, New York 10532 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed PART 11. IDENTITIES AND THE DEVELOPING PERSON Library Materials, ANSI 239.48-1984. 4. Children's Conceptions of Money: Concepts and Social Organization Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Howard S. Becker Social organization and social process : essays in honor of Anselm Strauss I David R. Maines, editor. 5. On the Empirical Investigation of Self-concepts p. cm.-(Communication and social order) Includes bibliographical references and index. Tarnotsu Shibutani ISBN 0-202-30390-X (alk. paper) 1. Social structure. 2. Sociology-Methodology. I. Strauss, 6. Turning Points and Fictional Identities Anselm L. II. Maines, David R. Ill. Series. Kathy Charmaz HN131.SS65 1991 301 '.Ol-dc20 91 -2770 CIP 7. Affirming Social Value: Women without Children Berenice Fisher 8. Identity Ambivalence in Clothing: The Dialectic of the Manufactured in the United States of America Erotic and the Chaste 10987654321 Fred Davis vi Table of Contents Table of Contents PART Ill. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL WORLDS 19. "Trajectory" as a Basic Theoretical Concept for Analyzing Suffering and Disorderly Social Processes 9. Social WorldsIArenas Theory as Organizational Theory Cerhard Riernann and Fritz Schiitze Adele E. Clarke 119 20. "Trajectory" as Intended Fragment: The Critique of 10. AIDS and Outreach Work Empirical Reason According to Anselm Strauss Barbara Suczek and Shizuko Fagerhaugh Hans-Ceorg Soeffner 11. Arenas and Careers: The Complex Interweaving 21. Reality of Social Worlds and Trajectories of of Personal and Organizational Destiny Working Carolyn L. Wiener Richard Grathoff 12. The Urban Milieu: Locales, Public Sociability, The Scholarly Writings of Anselm L. Strauss and Moral Concern Lyn H. Lofland Index 13. On Methods, Ontologies, and Representation in the Sociology of Science: Where do We Stand? )oan H. Fujirnura 207 14. Reaching the Invisible: A Case Study of Experimental Work in Microbiology (1880 -1 900) Alexandre Metraux 249 Portrait of Anselm L. Strauss '- 261 Conversation with Anselm L. Strauss 262 PART IV. METHODS, ANALYSIS, AND THEORY 15. The Sociology of the Invisible: The Primacy of Work in the Writings of Anselm Strauss Susan Leigh Star 265 16. Supplementing Grounded Theory Elihu M. Cerson 17. Dimensional Analysis: Notes on an Alternative Approach to the Grounding of Theory in Qualitative Research Leonard Schatzrnan 303 18. Wandering through the Caves: Phenomenological Field Research in a Social World of Dementia Herman Coenen 31 5 ''TFWJECTORY" AS A BASIC THEORETICAL CONCEPT FOR ANALYZING SUFFERING AND DISORDERLY SOCIAL PROCESSES Cerhard Riemann and Fritz Schutze The Context of Discovery The concept of "trajectory" has been of central importance in Strauss's research during the last two decades. It has provided a theoretical frame- work for several publications that dealt with the complicated relationship between the development of an illness and the various types of work done to "manage" that illness. Since the publication of Time for Dying (Glaser and Strauss 1968), many useful categories have been constructed that shed light on different aspects and phases of such processes. At the same time, the definition of the term trajectory itself has become more comprehensive and complex. While the category "dying trajectories" (as used in Time for Dying) denoted "perceived courses of dying rather than the actual courses," we find it defined in Social Organization of Medical Work as "not only the physiological unfolding of a patient's disease but the total organization of work done over that course, plus the impact on those involved with that work and its organization" (Strauss et al. 1985, p. 8, emphasis added). In Strauss's monographs and articles since the publication of Time for Dying, there has been an intense interest in understanding and analyzing how dying, pain, chronic illness, and illness in general are perceived and handled by staff members, relatives, and patients, how they become an object of work and require a sophisticated organization of work. This research focuses how even the most sophisticated organization of work is very fragile due to a multitude of contingencies arising from many sources (the illness itself, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, organizational sources, the "experiential careers" of different participants in the drama, and so forth). A crucial theme of this work is that the dramatic increase in medical knowledge and technology is combined with an increase in risks and unforeseen consequences; thus there is an unavoidable dialectic of Gerhard Riemann and Fritz Schiitze i "Trajectory" as a Basic Theoretical Concept 335 enhanced control and new contingencies that have to be managed. Is it possible that the concept of trajectory