Critical Analysis
In this new chapter to the previous edition of his book, Becker adds detail to what has become known as labeling theory. He clarifies a primary point that he feels has been misunderstood: a deviant is not labeled prior to committing a deviant act; there is no causality between being labeled and then becoming deviant. Labeling occurs after the individual is “caught” and then perpetuates itself through behavior.
Labeling is a force, not an assignment; “labelling places the actor in circumstances which make it harder for him to continue the normal routines of everyday life.” When a student is labeled a designer, they don’t suddenly become one, but they are now engaged more firmly with a social structure of unique demands and pressures. There are expectations that they engage in particular behaviors and activities, and that they accept specific stances related to creativity and criticism. This is a process of fitting in that the author views as collective: it’s “something being done by a lot of people together.” Studio is a physical space constraining that collective, making it more obvious what behavior is deemed normal or exceptional, and “people ordinarily take into account what is going on around them and what is likely to go on after they decide what they will do and do it.”
The author introduces the idea of “interactionist” to mean studying all of the people involved in the discussion of deviance, not simply the one being labeled. The creation of a designer is not only a student doing a designerly activity and being affirmed by a faculty member. The pressures of other students, the political environment of the institution, hiring designers, and a popular culture of design are all part of the “drama in which making allegations of wrongdoing is a central feature.” The drama itself, the author argues, is the unit of research, not the person being labeled. Social rules are not fixed. They change based on those participating. Labeling as causality does not take into account the emergent nature of identity. Interactionist theories look at how social actors are defined, and this requires an understanding of more than simply one being labeled.