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Mothers, Single Women and Sluts

Gender, Morality and Membership Categorization in Neighbour Disputes

Bibliographic Data

ID12259261
AuthorsE Stokoe (0000-0002-7353-4121, Loughborough University, corresponding author), Elizabeth H Stokoe (Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK.)
Year2003
Volume13
Issue3
Pages317-344
Publication date2003-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminism & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-3535 • E-ISSN: 1461-7161
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0959353503013003006
OpenAlexW2055211626
LanguageEN
Citations received80
References cited59

In this article, the links between neighbour relationships, gender and morality are explored from an ethnomethodological perspective. Talk between disputing neighbours was analysed for instances of gender relevance and subsequent moral assessment of neighbourly activities. Data from two contexts were recorded: neighbour mediation and televised disputes. The data were transcribed and subsequently analysed using Membership Categorization Analysis, an approach that examines speakers' situated categorizations of themselves and others and tracks the emergence of cultural and moral knowledge about social life. It was found that neighbours' complaints and defences were gendered in terms of categorizations of and about women. Three inter-related themes emerged in this gendering of neighbour relations. The first was that of `motherhood' and its role in warranting not just complaints about women neighbours, but also defences against complaints. Second, women's relationship status was regularly invoked. The categorization of `single woman' emerged in accounts as a source of complaint or defence. Third, speakers' juxtapositions of certain activities with the category `woman' were treated as breaches of the moral order. Overall, neighbour disputes were routinely gendered activities in which being a woman was treated as sufficient warrant for complaints between neighbours

Categorization · Complaint · Epistemology · Ethnomethodology · Mediation · Morality · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Relevance (law · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Emotional Labor in Professions · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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Unique citing works80
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Citation span2004 - 2026 (23)
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