A Moment of Irony on a cold winter day

I sat at a table in the corner of the Philadelphia Center City Sheraton on Saturday working on my presentation for the Eastern Sociological Society. While working there Mitch Duneier sat down at the table next to me. He played with his blackberry for a few minutes, got up and left. Five minutes later, Eric Klinenberg sat down at the same table to eat a sandwich. What's ironic about this?

Well, in 2004 Duneier published a rather abrasive critique of Klinenberg's book Heat Wave. The substance of Duneier's critique is that Klinenberg over interprets his data and had he obtained more data (following a Symbolic Interactionst approach to theoretical sampling) he would avoid perpetuating an ethnic myth. Klinenberg responded by suggesting that Duneier's hatchet job was retaliation for a critical assessment of his own work by Loic Wacquant.

Anyway, these sorts of squabbles rise now and again with little fanfare. However, Duneier didn't let it drop. He went to Chicago (the site of Klinenberg's fieldwork) and retraced his steps. He then published a research note in the American Sociological Review summarizing his findings, that contradict Klinenberg's core argument. [We shall leave aside for the moment how Duneier was able to get a piece of work this weak published in the ASR]. Klinenberg respsonded again with a rejoinder that quite thoroughly dismantle's Duneier's argument and makes his use of data and informants look quite naive.

The tone of this latest exchange communicates pure hostility. I've read the corpus of exchanges in this squabble and though I share Duneier's commitment to Symbolic Interactionism and what Wacquant dismisses as "the modern fairytale of Grounded Theory." I think Klinenberg is in the right here.

But for all that hostility, the two can still share the same seat in the corner of the Philadelphia Sheraton... even if they do so a few minutes apart.