Together Alone Personal Relationships in Public Places [Paperback]

Exploring locales such as city streets, bus stops, parking lots, bars, retail establishments, and discussion groups,Together Aloneventures 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 Morrillis Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author ofThe Executive Way: Conflict Management in Corporations(1995).David A. Snowis Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the coauthor ofThe Blackwell Companion to Social Movements(2003) andDown on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People(California, 1993).Cindy H. Whiteis Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

This is the first time public sociality has been studied this thoroughly. The essays explore a range of public and quasi-public relationships and look at them in new ways. An excellent teaching tool. Ruth Horowitz, author ofHonor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community

A wonderfully interesting and readable book. Lyn H. Lofland, author ofThe Public Realm/i>

A wide-ranging, empirically rich, and analytically provocative volume. Jack Katz, author ofHow Emotions Work