Together Alone: Personal Relationships in Public Places

323 Pages·2005·0.98 MB·English

by  David A. Snow

Together Alone
Together Alone
personal relationships in public places
Edited by
Calvin Morrill, David A. Snow,
and Cindy H.White
u n i v e r s i t y o f c a l i f o r n i a p r e s s
b e r k e l e y l o s a n g e l e s l o n d o n
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2005 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Together alone: personal relationships in public places /
edited by Calvin Morrill, David A. Snow, and Cindy
H. White
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-24522-9 (cloth : alk. paper)—
ISBN 0-520-24523-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Interpersonal relations. 2. Public spaces. I. Morrill,
Calvin. II. Snow, David A. III. White, Cindy H., 1965–
HM1106.T64 2005
302—dc22 2004018526
Manufactured in the United States of America
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997)
(Permanence of Paper).
contents
list of figures and tables / vii
preface / ix
1 / The Study of Personal Relationships in Public Places / 1
Calvin Morrill and David A. Snow
part one
social encounters and fleeting relationships
2 / Face Time: Public Sociality, Social Encounters,
and Gender at a University Recreation Center / 25
Lesa A. Stern, Mark Callister, and Lynn Jones
3 / Momentary Pleasures: Social Encounters and Fleeting
Relationships at a Singles Dance / 46
Irenee Beattie, Karen Christopher, Dina Okamoto, and Sandra Way
4 / A Personal Dance: Emotional Labor, Fleeting Relationships,
and Social Power in a Strip Bar / 66
Joseph E. Massey and Trina L. Hope
part t w o
anchored relationships
5 / Hanging Out among Teenagers: Resistance, Gender,
and Personal Relationships / 93
Tyler R. Harrison and Susan E. Morgan
6 / Everyone Gets to Participate: Floating Community
in an Amateur Softball League / 111
Allison Munch
7 / Inclusion and Intrusion: Gender and Sexuality
in Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Bars / 134
Lori L. Reid, Carolyn J.Aman Karlin, and Michael D. Bonham-Crecilius
8 / Breaking Up and Starting Over: Emotional Expression
in Postdivorce Support Groups / 159
Amy S. Ebesu Hubbard and Cindy H.White
part three
maintaining the interaction order
9 / Civility and Order: Adult Social Control of Children
in Public Places / 181
Christine Horne, Mary Kris Mcilwaine, and Kristie A.Taylor
10 / Order on the Edge: Remedial Work in a Right-Wing
Political Discussion Group / 201
Jason Clark-Miller and Jennifer Murdock
11 / Taking Stock: Functions, Places,
and Personal Relationships / 225
Calvin Morrill and David A. Snow
notes / 247
references / 269
contributors / 289
index / 293
f igures and tables
figures
1.1 Dominant Tendencies in Research on Personal Relationships by
Time and Place / 3
7.1 Stylized Depiction of Intrusive and Inclusive Dynamics by
Gender and Predominate Sexual Identities in Bars / 153
tables
9.1 Public Places by Adult Control Strategy / 186
10.1 Hierarchy of Issues/Themes Referred to by Members and Speakers
(September 1996 to February 1997) / 209
v i i
preface
this book is based on nine ethnographic studies on a topic that has
received scant scholarly attention: personal relationships in public places.
Scholars of personal relationships have traditionally explored them in the
contexts of family, school, and work but rarely in public places, which tra-
ditionally have been thought of as the realm of passing strangers. To be
sure, a handful of scholars have explored aspects of public sociality—
namely, Paul Cressey, Fred Davis, Robert Edgerton, Erving Goffman, Jane
Jacobs, Lyn Lofland, and Gregory Stone—and this volume is indebted to
their contributions. But it goes beyond them by pushing the conceptual
boundaries of what are usually considered personal relationships and by
examining the social conditions associated with public places that both
facilitate and constrain the negotiation of public personal relationships. In
so doing, this volume illuminates the ironies of face-to-face social ties that
paradoxically blend aspects of durability and brevity, of emotional close-
ness and distance, of being together and alone. It also suggests, metaphor-
ically, that people are not so much “bowling alone,” as Robert Putnam has
1
argued, as they are together in disconnected niches of public sociality.
This volume also spans a number of disciplines and fields of inquiry.
The interactionist tradition in sociology, relationship research by commu-
nication scholars and social psychologists, and urban ethnography under-
gird the collection as a whole. Multiple conceptual frameworks inform
i x