Home and Work: Negotiating Boundaries through Everyday Life [Paperback]

Christena E. Nippert-Eng (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226581462 | ISBN-13: 978-0226581460 | Publication Date: June 1, 1996

Do you put family photos on your desk at work? Are your home and work keys on the same chain? Do you keep one all-purpose calendar for listing home and work events? Do you have separate telephone books for colleagues and friends? In Home and Work, Christena Nippert-Eng examines the intricacies and implications of how we draw the line between home and work.

Arguing that relationships between the two realms range from those that are highly "integrating" to those that are highly "segmenting," Nippert-Eng examines the ways people sculpt the boundaries between home and work. With remarkable sensitivity to the symbolic value of objects and actions, Nippert-Eng explores the meaning of clothing, wallets, lunches and vacations, and the places and ways in which we engage our family, friends, and co-workers. Commuting habits are also revealing, showing how we make the transition between home and work selves though ritualized behavior like hellos and goodbyes, the consumption of food, the way we dress, our choices of routes to and from work, and our listening, working, and sleeping habits during these journeys.

The ways each of us manages time, space, and people not only reflect but reinforce lives that are more "integrating" or "segmenting" at any given time. In clarifying what we take for granted, this book will leave you thinking in different ways about your life and work.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

How do you draw the line between work duties and home life? Sociologist Nippert-Eng explores this question in her fascinating research, which reveals the many symbolic and practical boundaries humans set up to distinguish these two important roles in life. She presents a theory of "boundary work," exemplified by the use of symbolic separation, transformational activities, and an explanation of the struggle we face as we deal with constraints from the work environment as well as from home that pull and tug at us for all our attention. The author's research is substantial, including extensive interviews with 72 willing participants from a research laboratory. While the question of how to balance all these difficult responsibilities and yet live a meaningful life will appeal to many readers, this is nevertheless a highly specialized dissertation suitable for major university libraries supporting a graduate sociology curriculum. Wait for a more "user-friendly" version to hit the self-help shelves.?Dale Farris, Groves, Tex.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 343 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226581462
• ISBN-13: 978-0226581460
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,171,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christena Nippert-Eng, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Social Sciences at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Her research interests include cognitive sociology, culture, everyday life, privacy, work, gender, the home, time and space, technology, ethnography, and the Western Lowland Gorillas of the Lincoln Park Zoo.

For reviews and more information on her most recent book, Islands of Privacy, see her website:

www.islandsofprivacy.com

Dr. Nippert-Eng's work has been featured extensively in the media, including radio, television and newspaper interviews ranging from NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and "848" to programs on PBS and MSNBC and stories for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Working Mother and Fast Company. She has been an invited speaker for such diverse venues as the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the Smithsonian Museum, the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons' Pediatric Group, Reason Magazine's Dynamic Visions conferences, the MotherRead/FatherRead literacy organization, and the Industrial Design Society of America.

Dr. Nippert-Eng lives with her family in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. She studies improvisational comedy, musical improv, and comedy writing at the Second City and the Annoyance Theater.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars update the book to reflect a blurring of the boundaries, January 28, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Home and Work: Negotiating Boundaries through Everyday Life (Paperback)

Nippert-Eng has studied how people demarcate their work and personal lives in this lucid text. Some preserve a rigid separation, enforced above all by the home and workplace being physically separate. This can be reinforced by the wearing of different clothes, or otherwise changing one's appearance. Perhaps assisted by a workplace requiring a uniform, be this a mechanic's garb or a doctor's lab coat.

The book also explores how the demarcation can involve different eating and drinking habits. A working lunch these days might be alcohol-free, as opposed to a dinner with friends.

The book was written in 96. Since then, the continued increase in the usage of personal computers and associated technologies like wireless and broadband access, has led to a blurring of workplace and non-workplace for some of us. Exaceberated by the pervasive use of email and Instant Messaging. It would be interesting for her to update the book to reflect these changes.