Turning Points and Trajectories in a Late-Blooming Career

Adele E. Clarke

doi:10.1108/S0163-2396(2012)0000038007

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Studies in Symbolic Interaction

ISSN: 0163-2396
Series editor(s): Professor Norman Denzin

Subject Area: Sociology and Public Policy

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Turning Points and Trajectories in a Late-Blooming Career

Document Information:
Title:	Turning Points and Trajectories in a Late-Blooming Career
Author(s):	Adele E. Clarke
Volume:	38 Editor(s): Norman K. Denzin ISBN: 978-1-78052-746-8 eISBN: 978-1-78052-747-5
Citation:	Adele E. Clarke (2012), Turning Points and Trajectories in a Late-Blooming Career, in Norman K. Denzin (ed.) Blue-Ribbon Papers: Behind the Professional Mask: The Autobiographies of Leading Symbolic Interactionists (Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Volume 38), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.75-102
DOI:	10.1108/S0163-2396(2012)0000038007 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Abstract:	My early life was punctuated by turning points and transformations that gradually led to a surprising and late-blooming academic career – my first “real” sociology position began when I was 44. Here I trace six different trajectories of scholarly work which have compelled me: feminist women's health and technoscience studies; social worlds/arenas and the disciplinary emergence of reproductive sciences; the sociology of work and scientific practices; biomedicalization studies; grounded theory and situational analysis as qualitative research methods; and symbolic interaction-ists and -isms. I have circled back across them multiple times. Instead of seeing a beautifully folded origami of a life, it feels more like a crumpled wad of newspapers from various times. Upon opening and holding them up to the light in different ways, stories may be slowly discerned. I try to capture here some of the sweetness and fragility of these moments toward the end of an initially stuttering but later wondrously gratifying career.