Duneier-Molotch1999

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Duneier-Molotch1999
BibType ARTICLE
Key Duneier-Molotch1999
Author(s) Mitchell Duneier, Harvey L. Molotch
Title Talking City Trouble: Interactional Vandalism, Social Inequality, and the “Urban Interaction Problem”
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Urban problems, Vandalism, Social interaction, Social Inequality
Publisher
Year 1999
Language
City
Month
Journal American Journal of Sociology
Volume 104
Number 5
Pages 1263–1295
URL Link
DOI 10.1086/210175
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This article uses ethnography and conversation analysis to pinpoint what “goes wrong” when certain so‐called street people “harass” pas‐sersby. The technical properties of sidewalk encounters between particular black street men and middle‐class white female residents of Greenwich Village are compared with interactions expected from studies of other conversation situations. The men attempt to initiate conversations and to deal with efforts to close them in ways that betray the practical ethics fundamental to all social interaction. In this way they undermine the requisites not just for “urbanism as a way of life,” but the bases for how sociability generally proceeds. These acts of “interactional vandalism” both reflect and contribute to the larger structural conditions shaping the local scene.

Notes