Playing Ball in Queens, NYC: The Sociology of the Local and Local Culture

• In Event: 3184 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 13. Scenes, Taste, and Cultural Consumption

Abstract

This paper describes a group of men who play fast pitch softball in a public playground in Queens, New York City. Combining ethnography and analysis, this endeavor is heavily indebted to the work of Gary Alan Fine, especially his 2010 essay in the ASA's journal, Sociological Theory[Dec.2010], "The Sociology of the Local: Action and Its Publics." The focus of this paper is on what Fine has called the sociology of the local as stage, involving arenas, relations, and shared pasts, including the creation of what Fine calls, idioculture,i.e. the culture of the group. Another key point of the paper is to emphasize the important role of agency and to analyze order and continuity as accomplishments of the participating players.

Author

• Joseph G. A. Trumino, St. John's University