Exploring locales such as city streets, bus stops, parking lots, bars, retail establishments, and discussion groups, Together Alone ventures 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.

"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 of Honor and the American Dream: Culture and Identity in a Chicano Community

"A wonderfully interesting and readable book."-Lyn H. Lofland, author of The Public Realm/i>

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