PEOPLES ACCOUNTS COUNT - THE SOCIOLOGY OF ACCOUNTS

Humans are inexorably driven to search for order and meaning in their own and others' lives; accounts are a major avenue for sociologists to depict and understand the ways in which individuals experience and id entify with that meaning and their social world. The accounts concept has a solid foundation and history in early sociological analysis and research. The current work on accounts focuses on ''story-like'' inter pretations or explanations and their functions and consequences to a s ocial actor's life. The concept is useful for gaining insight into the human experience and arriving at meanings or culturally embedded norm ative explanations. This concept deserves greater explicit attention i n sociology and is in need of further theoretical development and stim ulation. I argue that sociologists should embrace the concept of accou nts; the foundation is set for a resurgence of work on accounts in soc iology.