Together Alone

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.

Calvin Morrill is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of The Executive Way: Conflict Management in Corporations (1995). David A. Snow is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the coauthor of The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (2003) and Down on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People (California, 1993). Cindy H. White is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

List of Figures and Tables
Preface
1. The Study of Personal Relationships in Public Places

PART ONE. SOCIAL ENCOUNTERS AND FLEETING RELATIONSHIPS
2. Face Time: Public Sociality, Social Encounters, and Gender at a University Recreation Center
3. Momentary Pleasures: Social Encounters and Fleeting Relationships at a Singles Dance
4. A Personal Dance: Emotional Labor, Fleeting Relationships, and Social Power in a Strip Bar

PART TWO. ANCHORED RELATIONSHIPS
5. Hanging Out among Teenagers: Resistance, Gender, and Personal Relationships
6. Everyone Gets to Participate: Floating Community in an Amateur Softball League
7. Inclusion and Intrusion: Gender and Sexuality in Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Bars
8. Breaking Up and Starting Over: Emotional Expression in Postdivorce Support Groups

PART THREE. MAINTAINING THE INTERACTION ORDER
9. Civility and Order: Adult Social Control of Children in Public Places
10. Order on the Edge: Remedial Work in a Right-Wing Political Discussion Group
11. Taking Stock: Functions, Places, and Personal Relationships

Notes
References
Contributors
Index