Professor Pollner's primary research interests were the sociology of mental illness; self and identity; ethnomethodology; and, recently, economic sociology.
His work in these areas included studies of psychiatric emergency teams, the construction of reality in families, the impact of religious beliefs on psychological well-being, and narrative practices in Alcoholics Anonymous.
He also studied the social construction of stock market bubbles, reasoning in legal contexts, the dynamics of researcher/researched relationships and composed a variety of ethnomethodological studies and writings.