Imagination, Vision, and Passion

I knew Ken for more than 50 years and in this chapter, I will reflect on how much I learned from his enthusiasm for sociology and his development of a distinctive sociological imagination. Ken was an early advocate of the radical sociology of deviance, and his teaching inspired me with an interest that transcended this area and influenced all that I have done in other areas. Ken stressed the importance, and the enjoyment, of discovering what goes on ‘backstage’, and I will consider the influence of his work on my own investigations into the economic elites that operate out of public sight. I will consider how his work on self and personal biography influenced my own work on historical documents and the biographies of elite members. Ken’s love of sociology was apparent in his unbounded enthusiasm for its history and the studies undertaken by its many diverse practitioners, and this, too, inspired my own interest in the history of the subject. I will explore Ken’s love of teaching, and will reflect on our work together on postgraduate training, where we endeavoured to convey the joys of the sociological imagination. Ken’s life and career present a rounded view of what it means to follow sociology as a vocation.