TY - JOUR

T1 - “I Am an Unashamed Cityphile”

T2 - Making Sense of a World of Strangers in Ann Arbor, Amsterdam, and Beyond

AU - Müller, Thaddeus

PY - 2025/5/31

Y1 - 2025/5/31

N2 - This article describes the social construction of Lofland's A World of Strangers (1973), which has become a seminal publication on social interactions in urban public places. I focus on her methods, research locations, references, and positionality. I will refer to my meetings with her and analyze two unpublished documents: the methodological appendix of her book and her 1966 paper “In the Presence of Strangers.” The article shows that her book was profoundly shaped by middle‐class rules of public behavior in Ann Arbor in 1966, her symbolic interactionist understanding of the fragile self, and her positionality shaped by class, gender, age and race.

AB - This article describes the social construction of Lofland's A World of Strangers (1973), which has become a seminal publication on social interactions in urban public places. I focus on her methods, research locations, references, and positionality. I will refer to my meetings with her and analyze two unpublished documents: the methodological appendix of her book and her 1966 paper “In the Presence of Strangers.” The article shows that her book was profoundly shaped by middle‐class rules of public behavior in Ann Arbor in 1966, her symbolic interactionist understanding of the fragile self, and her positionality shaped by class, gender, age and race.

KW - the public realm

KW - behavior in urban public places

KW - social construction

KW - A World of Strangers

KW - positionality

U2 - 10.1002/symb.1243

DO - 10.1002/symb.1243

M3 - Journal article

VL - 48

SP - 241

EP - 264

JO - Symbolic Interaction

JF - Symbolic Interaction

SN - 0195-6086

IS - 2

ER -