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Sociology Dissertations Department of Sociology
Summer 8-18-2010
Scrapworthy Lives: A Cognitive Sociological
Analysis of a Modern Narrative Form
Stephanie R. Medley-Rath
Georgia State University
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Medley-Rath, Stephanie R., "Scrapworthy Lives: A Cognitive Sociological Analysis of a Modern Narrative Form." Dissertation,
Georgia State University, 2010.
htps://scholarworks.gsu.edu/sociology_diss/51
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SCRAPWORTHY LIVES:
A COGNITIVE SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A MODERN NARRATIVE FORM
by
STEPHANIE R. MEDLEY-RATH
Under the Direction of Ralph LaRossa
ABSTRACT
Over the past 20 years, scrapbooking has become immensely popular in America. This
dissertation is the study of scrapworthy lives, that is, how lives become structured by
scrapbooking and how people show others that their own life and the lives of their loves ones are
value—or scrapworthy. I conducted in-depth interviews with 38 scrapbookers, 11 scrapbook
industry workers, and 10 family and friends of scrapbookers. I also used photo-elicitation
interviewing techniques with both the scrapbookers and the family members and friends of 10
scrapbookers to examine a selection of scrapbook pages the respondents had completed. I used
grounded theory methods to analyze my data, providing a more thorough understanding of
scrapbooking.
Scrapbooks are a site where people socially construct a narrative of their life. Through
scrapbooking, scrapbookers do gender, family, race, ethnicity, and religion. Stratification within
the larger society can be seen within the scrapbooking thought community. Moreover, through
scrapbooking, people can demonstrate their membership in other thought communities (e.g.,
motherhood). Though scrapbookers are able to demonstrate their gender, family status, race,
ethnicity, and religion through scrapbooking, the hobby is done primarily for the scrapbookers
and not for others. Scrapbooking is a leisure activity, though some may consider it as a form of
work.
Scrapbookers are a thought community in their own right and an excellent site to explore
Zerubavel‟s (1997) six cognitive acts (i.e., perceiving, classifying, reckoning time, attending,
assigning meaning, and remembering). In particular, scrapbookers come to classify nearly
everything (including people, things, time, and space) in the world around them as either
scrapworthy or not.
Scrapbooks are a modern narrative form, though versions of scrapbooks have been
around for centuries. Scrapbooks are memorials about everyday life. The content of scrapbooks
is what is left out of the typical history book but is considered just as memorable by
scrapbookers. Scrapbookers are storytellers. These stories could just as easily be passed down
orally or recorded on blogs and some scrapbooks combine elements of oral histories and blogs.
Ultimately, scrapbooks are memorials about the scrapbooker.
INDEX WORDS: Scrapbook, Cognitive sociology, Doing gender, Doing family, Narrative,
Leisure
SCRAPWORTHY LIVES:
A COGNITIVE SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A MODERN NARRATIVE FORM
by
STEPHANIE R. MEDLEY-RATH
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia State University
2010
Copyright by
Stephanie R. Medley-Rath
2010
SCRAPWORTHY LIVES:
A COGNITIVE SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF A MODERN NARRATIVE FORM
by
STEPHANIE R. MEDLEY-RATH
Committee Chair: Ralph LaRossa
Committee: Wendy Simonds
Adia Harvey Wingfield
Electronic Version Approved:
Office of Graduate Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia State University
December 2010
iv
DEDICATION
For Rachel
v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I have had a lot of support throughout the dissertation process. I thank my mom and dad,
Kay and Mike Medley, for always supporting me throughout my academic training.
I thank my mom and husband, Rob for providing childcare and entertainment to my
daughter, Rachel so I could conduct, transcribe, and analyze interviews and also so I could write
my dissertation. I thank my dad for providing childcare so that I could actually defend my
dissertation. I also thank my husband for his support throughout my schooling. He has been a
part of my life since before I chose sociology as a major and even moved across the country with
me when I decided to attend graduate school. He now knows more about sociology and
scrapbooking than he ever thought he would.
I am thankful for the owner of a local scrapbook store for hiring me in 2003 despite my
little experience as a scrapbooker. My life has been forever changed. I scrapbook everything and
have completed a doctorate about scrapbooking. I had no idea either of these things would ever
be true about me.
I thank every single person who volunteered for this study and shared their scrapbooks
with me. Each of you provided valuable information and also inspired me to scrapbook in new
ways. I am forever changed by each of you. Keep on scrapbooking.
I thank my dissertation chair, Ralph LaRossa, for putting up with my procrastination,
supporting this project, but most of all for giving me the idea that my work in a scrapbook store
could turn into something as big as a dissertation. I still remember the day I told him I worked in
a scrapbook store and the light bulb appeared above his head back in 2003 before I had
committed to even continuing on for my doctorate.
vi
I also thank my dissertation committee members, Wendy Simonds and Adia Harvey
Wingfield. I thank Wendy for challenging me to write a more convincing dissertation and
correcting my many typographical errors. I thank Adia for joining my committee even though we
did not know each other outside of this project. She challenged me to think about my topic in
new and interesting ways.
I want to thank my classmates and professors through my graduate school years who
have read very early incarnations of this project and provided feedback and support. I am
grateful for Saori Yasumoto who made sure everyone that needed a copy of my dissertation
received a copy before my defense. I also must thank my proofreaders: Kay Medley, Lindsey
Medley, Rob Rath, and Wendy Rath.
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v
LIST OF TABLES x
LIST OF FIGURES xi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 THE GROWTH OF SCRAPBOOKING 6
1.2 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON SCRAPBOOKING 9
1.3 SCRAPWORTHY LIVES 12
1.4 A NOTE ON TERMS 15
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 17
2.1 COGNITIVE SOCIOLOGY 17
2.2 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM 29
2.3 ETHNOMETHODOLOGY 32
CHAPTER 3: METHODS 38
3.1 SAMPLE 39
3.3 INTERVIEWS 50
3.4 GROUNDED THEORY METHODS 55
CHAPTER 4: THE SCRAPBOOKING THOUGHT COMMUNITY 62
4.1 SOURCES OF SCRAPBOOKING NORMS 63
4.2 SCRAPBOOKING NORMS 72
4.4 SCRAPBOOKING IS DEVIANT 88
4.5 SCRAPBOOKERS VIEW THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY 95
