Home and Work: Negotiating Boundaries through Everyday Life

by Christena E. Nippert-Eng

Do you put family photos on your desk at work? Are your home and work keys on the same chain? Do you keep one all-purpose calendar for listing home and work events? Do you have separate telephone books for colleagues and friends? In Home and Work, Christena Nippert-Eng examines the intricacies and implications of how we draw the line between home and work.

Arguing that relationships between the two realms range from those that are highly "integrating" to those that are highly "segmenting," Nippert-Eng examines the ways people sculpt the boundaries between home and work. With remarkable sensitivity to the symbolic value of objects and actions, Nippert-Eng explores the meaning of clothing, wallets, lunches and vacations, and the places and ways in which we engage our family, friends, and co-workers. Commuting habits are also revealing, showing how we make the transition between home and work selves though ritualized behavior like hellos and goodbyes, the consumption of food, the way we dress, our choices of routes to and from work, and our listening, working, and sleeping habits during these journeys.

The ways each of us manages time, space, and people not only reflect but reinforce lives that are more "integrating" or "segmenting" at any given time. In clarifying what we take for granted, this book will leave you thinking in different ways about your life and work.

343 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

Reviews

[Yisu Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

以小见大的日常社会学典范。能靠普通的数据来探讨抽象的boundary work真是厉害。特别喜欢那个雕塑家的比喻，sculpting home and work. "Cultural groups constantly negotiate the grounds of distinction, seeking consensus on the places and ways in which boundaries reflect what we see and shape what we think. As a result, we product and find ourselves constrained by systems of classification. N-E老师预见了豆瓣。