Incivility: The Rude Stranger in Everyday Life

by Philip Smith, Timothy L. Phillips, Ryan D. King

Overview

Has anyone ever pushed in front of you in a queue? Stolen your parking space? Talked on their mobile phone during a film at the cinema? In our everyday lives we all encounter rude and inconsiderate people. This unique book provides the first ever systematic investigation of typical encounters with rudeness. Through a meticulous analysis of over 500 events, it maps out what people experience as rude, where and when this happens and what takes place in the exchange between the participants. The inquiry further charts the emotional and social consequences of rudeness and victimization, with the results challenging the widespread assumption that bad behaviour is toxic to community life. In conclusion the study draws upon its findings and surveys a range of strategies for reducing the level of incivility in everyday life, identifying some simple and innovative solutions. Incivility will appeal to criminologists, sociologists and scholars of urban studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780511850455
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/26/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	897 KB

About the Author

Philip Smith is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, and Deputy Director of the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University, Connecticut.
Timothy L. Phillips is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Tasmania.
Ryan D. King is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the State University of New York, Albany.

Table of Contents

1. Redirecting incivility research; 2. The fundamentals of the incivil encounter; 3. Everyday incivility and the everyday round; 4. Emotions and sequences; 5. Gender, age and class: divergent experiences?; 6. After the event: coping, avoiding and changing; 7. General attitudes towards the stranger: exploring fear and trust; 8. How to confront incivility; 9. Twenty questions and answers.

Editorial Reviews

"How much of a menace are rude people in public places? For the first time, this book gives us the data to find out. The biggest problem is not when nice middle class people venture into bad neighbourhoods. Rudeness happens mainly in ordinary crowds where the foot traffic is heaviest, and it is middle class men pushing obliviously through that are the main culprits. Smith, Phillips and King explain what kinds of situations cause what kinds of rudeness and what victims do about it. The authors do for pedestrians what Jack Katz did for road rage in his famous 'Pissed Off in L.A.' This book pushes in alongside Goffman's Relations in Public as a classic of interactional sociology." - Randall Collins, Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, and author of Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory

"An innovative sociological study of an issue that today generates much anxious chatter but little sustained analysis - rudeness between strangers in public places. By treating incivility as a routine part of everyday life, rather than a policy problem to be fixed, the authors shed new light on this issue and offer some wise words about what can - and cannot - be done to produce civil social relations." - Ian Loader, Professor of Criminology and Director of the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford

From the Publisher