Together Alone: Personal Relationships in Public Places

by Calvin Morrill, David A. Snow (Editor), Cindy White (Editor)

Exploring locales such as city streets, bus stops, parking lots, bars, retail establishments, and discussion groups, Together Alone ventures into what is often thought of as the realm of passing strangers to examine the nature of personal relationships conducted in public spaces. While most studies of social interaction have gone behind closed doors to focus on relationships in the family, school, and workplace, this innovative collection pushes the boundaries of the field by analyzing both fleeting and anchored relationships in the seldom-studied communal areas where much of contemporary life takes place. The contributors shed light on the diversity and character of day-to-day negotiations in public spaces and at the same time illuminate how these social ties paradoxically blend aspects of durability and brevity, of emotional closeness and distance, of being together and alone.

322 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2005

About the author

Calvin Morrill is Stefan A. Riesenfeld Professor of Law, and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the Berkeley faculty, he was a member of the Sociology, Paul Merage School of Business, and Criminology, Law & Society faculties at the University of California, Irvine.

Reviews

[Dee]

Learned about this book here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/gar...