Rethinking Friendship: Hidden Solidarities Today

Liz Spencer; Ray Pahl [1935-2011]

ISBN 10: 0691127425 / ISBN 13: 9780691127422

Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. USA, 2006

About this Item

xii, 306pp., figures, appendix, notes, index. Lightly dusted top edge. Light foxing to text block. Minor marking to title page else clean and bright. Dustjacket has light creasing to spine top and slightly sunned spine.(BH) 4/2026.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1776396688370

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rethinking Friendship: Hidden Solidarities Today
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. USA
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691127425
• ISBN 13: 9780691127422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Dimensions: 3.18W x 15.88H x 23.5D centimeters 3.18 centimeters width by 15.88 centimeters height by 23.5 centimeters depth
• Weight: 624 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Sociology
  • Psychology

About this title

Synopsis

From Aristotle to contemporary soap operas, friendship has always been a subject of fascination. But scholarly investigation of the broad social relevance of friendship has been neglected. Rethinking Friendship describes the varied nature of personal relationships today, and also locates friendship in contemporary debates about individualization and the supposed "collapse of community." Exploring friendships with partners and family as well as "friends," the book reveals ways in which friends and friendlike ties are an important and unacknowledged source of social glue.


Using a rigorous analysis of in-depth interviews, the authors develop a set of innovative concepts--friendship repertoires (the range of friendships people have); friendship modes (the way people make and maintain friendships over time); and patterns of suffusion (the extent to which boundaries between friends and family become blurred). These concepts form the basis of a typology of personal communities that vary in the roles played by friends, family, partners, and neighbors.


Combining scholarly depth and rich description, this absorbing and accessible book will appeal to all those interested in informal social relationships, including students of methodology and policymakers. With its challenge to pessimistic commentators, Rethinking Friendship urges us to resist sweeping generalizations and to acknowledge the sheer diversity of social life today.

About the Author

Liz Spencer is a Research Associate of the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex and a partner and cofounder of New Perspectives research consultancy. Ray Pahl is Research Professor at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex and is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. His many books include Divisions of Labour, which is considered a sociological classic, and On Friendship.