Everett Hughes

Everett Hughes was an American sociologist of the Chicago School who founded the modern sociology of work and occupations, studying how people build identity, status, and moral standing around what they do for a living. He introduced concepts including master status, the single social position that dominates how a person is perceived and treated regardless of other roles they hold, and dirty work, the socially necessary but stigmatized tasks that some occupations require, and he argued that the sociological study of prestigious professions and of the most marginal occupations should use the same analytic tools. As a teacher at Chicago, Hughes mentored an influential generation of interactionist sociologists, including Howard Becker, Erving Goffman, and Anselm Strauss, and shaped their shared attention to work, careers, and the negotiated character of social roles.