DeLand2012

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DeLand2012
BibType ARTICLE
Key DeLand2012
Author(s) Michael F. DeLand
Title Suspending narrative engagements: the case of pick-up basketball
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, sport, basketball, narrative, interaction, analytic induction, ethnography
Publisher
Year 2012
Language English
City
Month
Journal The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Volume 642
Number 1
Pages 96–108
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/0002716212438201
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This article explores the way social actors organize their engagements in real time. The term “narrative” points to the subjectively understood practical projects that people structure with beginnings, middles, and ends. All projects may be interrupted, and if social actors are to continue the narrative engagement they must treat the stoppage as a mere suspension. The work of suspending a game of informal pick-up basketball is examined in three phases: interrupting the game, treating the game as suspended, and resuming play. In each phase, players collectively resist the possibility of abandonment as an alternative to game resumption. While narrative structuring is a powerful locus of meaning across diverse social contexts, informal basketball games offer a particularly good setting for the study of narrative organization in social life.

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