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The purpose of this paper is to explore what it means to be a manager in the context of working from home, or “flexworking”, as an increasingly common work practice.

The paper is located within an interpretive interactionist perspective, drawing on interviews with managers who took part in a larger qualitative study of employees who work from home two or more days a week in the Canadian subsidiary of a high‐tech MNC. Template analysis identified themes which are most salient in managers” experiences of managing these “flexworkers”.

The findings point to several key themes in interviewees' experiences of managing flexworkers: maintaining a balance between providing autonomy alongside appropriate levels of cohesion between themselves and employees and between employees; the increasing importance of trust and the centrality of interpersonal relationships and interactions.

A limitation is a relatively small sample size (27) in the Canadian hi‐tech industry. Also, the findings may not be applicable to other industries or to managers in other countries. The paper's location within an interpretive interactionist framework accords primary focus to individual action rather than structural forces.

Contemporary management development initiatives should balance communication and support, while avoiding micromanagement. They should also develop managers' ability to ensure that social bonds are maintained but do not undermine the principles of flexwork.

There is a paucity of qualitative research on flexworking in Canada. Moreover, the paper contributes a theoretical understanding of this work arrangement, whereas previous research has been primarily descriptive.

The chapter reports the author's early reading of Norman Denzin's work in symbolic interactionism, and Denzin's impact on research training in social science in the United Kingdom. The chapter reflects on Denzin's impact on the field of educational research in particular. The chapter then reflects on working with Denzin and particularly Denzin's leadership of the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) and its role in energizing and organizing the international qualitative inquiry community – the creation of Denzin's “bigger tent.”

Within a concept of life‐long learning, the study here reported is framed within the context of the expanding use of education and training in achieving organisational change. The focus of the research study was on one particular organisational education and training intervention and on how individuals experienced the learning and implementing of part of that intervention, namely group process facilitation. Such experiences may best be understood from the perspective of the learners themselves. There were four important factors reported that impinged on the learning process for the participants and that helped them construct new realities: the novelty of the learning environment; the value of flexibility; the value of openness; and the educational value of difference.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Iranian EFL teachers’ and learners’ emotions in the realities of the classroom to investigate how their experience and navigation of emotions could provide the opportunity for socially just teaching.

A qualitative study was conducted to probe EFL teachers’ and learners’ emotional experiences. Data were gathered through interviews and observation. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, the researchers analyzed the data through three stages of critical emotional praxis, including identification, reflection, and response.

Findings of the study revealed that emotions of caring, love, anger, and anxiety were the most dominant emotions among teachers and learners. Also, it was shown that the participants used emotion management, the cultivation of positive emotions, and bodily manipulation in order to change their course of actions and move toward two-way communication whereby they could see and hear each other.

The paper provided a new lens through which socially just teaching can be studies in EFL contexts. Also, the participants of the study consisted of both the teachers and the learners, because the researchers believed in a teacher’s identity as a pedagogy. In this respect, this study can also be considered as different from similar studies conducted on teachers’ emotional identities in the classroom.

Norman Denzin's career as a symbolic interactionist spans many years and has produced an incredible amount of high-quality scholarship. His work as editor of Studies in Symbolic Interaction has served as a platform for disseminating a wide range of innovative ideas, research, and reviews in our discipline. In this chapter, I will discuss two features of Studies that point to the great value of its work to symbolic interaction in general and to the areas of music studies in particular. Those two features are planting the seed of interactionist scholarship in an initial paper, and growing collective interactionist projects through special issues. My examples will be drawn from my own experiences with Studies over the years, and my approach to research and writing on music phenomena.

In this paper, we examine the social stratification in the favelas, urban slums, both in general and how it correlates with technology. The analysis is based on Weberian stratification theory, since it provides for a broad understanding of the different factors that make up the digital inequalities.

Based on a 10-month critical ethnographic research dealing with LAN houses and state supported telecenters in the favelas of Vitória, Brazil, we analyze how the use of technology by residents of such marginalized areas expands our understanding of Weber’s axes of stratification, namely class, status and political power. The data was drawn from user observations, Facebook interactions, and 76 semi-structured interviews.

The drug cartel members belonged to the higher class of favela residents due to their access to material resources and ability to afford smartphones and data plans. However, in terms of status groups, they did not represent the pinnacle of the community. Where status was concerned, the highest stratum of the community was composed of the “Facebook’s celebrities,” the few teenagers who knew how to produce content online, such as images and videos. An additional axis of social differentiation, related to political power, was observed during the 2013 protests in Brazil. Favela residents arrived late to the event and found themselves “fighting” for demands stipulated previously by the organizers who belonged to upper classes.

We highlight what access to ICTs can, and cannot, accomplish in a “highly disorganized,” conflict-ridden, and institution-poor environment. With that we hope to encourage academics and practitioners to do a better job in developing appropriate policies and technologies.

The research goal was to trace behavioural patterns of management accountants, comprising activities and courses of action, in order to enhance understanding of the management accounting profession.

Protoscripts were derived, using interview techniques and a research method called “interpretive interactionism”. These protoscripts depict observable, recurrent activities and patterns of interaction characteristic for a group of persons, and can be used in various types of situations.

The paper describes the procedure and outcome of the collection of behavioural protoscripts used by management accountants and controllers, as well as their possible ordering.

The findings enlarge understanding of the controller profession, but are limited solely to controller activities. The protoscripts collected are stereotypical, at least for the controllers interviewed. Of course, all human experience is interpretation and it should be acknowledged that interpretations are never complete.

The control mechanisms and instruments that emerge in an organisation are the result of several interrelated factors and processes. Of special interest here is the behaviour of management accountants and controllers in shaping, maintaining and exerting control. Behavioural protoscripts can show how management accountants give contents to their role and structure their daily work.

Scripted behaviour of management accountants has received little prior research attention, especially in combination with the research method of interpretive interactionism.

SI offers a distinctive theoretical language for practice: a vocabulary and a grammar for identifying the personal troubles and joys of group members and for locating these experiences in shared symbol systems and in associated social arrangements (Weigert, 1995). SI can provide the ideal base for social work and sociological helping work (Forte, 2004a, 2004b). It is a coherent organizing language that can guide practitioner thinking, acting, and feeling especially when professional action is blocked.

This interpretive biography of Norman K. Denzin traces some of the important turns and moments of his intellectual development and prodigious publication. One focus includes his editorial role for the first 52 volumes of Studies in Symbolic Interaction (1978–2020), and how his vision for an inclusive community of qualitative researchers and interpretive scholars emerged and changed.