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Building Affinity through Friendship
... Missing friendships, missing locals: contextualising cross-cultural relationships Until recently, there has been little scholarly interest in love and emotion within the social sciences, with these aspects of social life often being dismissed as lacking in seriousness and as characterised by irrationality (Lutz and White 1986;Maskens and Blanes 2013;McElhinny 2010;Venkatesan et al. 2011). However, the study of friendship and other relationships is becoming increasingly popular in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology (Allan 1998(Allan , 2001Armytage 2015;Barcellos Rezende 1999;Bell and Coleman 1999;Eve 2002;Silver 1990Silver , 1996Smart et al. 2012). Such research often focuses on how modern friendships are being transformed: for instance, by changing families, shifting communities, and growing global interconnectedness (Allan 2001;Baldassar and Merla 2014;Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2013;Blatterer 2013Blatterer , 2015Bunnell et al. 2012;Giddens 1992;McKenzie 2015;Silver 1990Silver , 1996. ...
... Allan 1998cf. Allan , 2001Barcellos Rezende 1999;Bell and Coleman 1999;Carrier 1999). Such conceptions reflect commonsense understandings of friendship present in North American and Western European contexts, as well as their former colonies, which are increasingly associated with notions of "modern" relationships worldwide (Blatterer 2013, 438). ...
... This is held to be especially true in the modern, globalised world, where "boundaries within society have become increasingly porous" (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2013, 45). Friendship across cultures and nations are often positioned as a potential means of improving cross-cultural understanding (Barcellos Rezende 1999;Lee 2006), yet many also argue that friendships do not necessarily mitigate social divides (Carrier 1999). Indeed, friendships frequently work to solidify existing boundaries: maintaining unequal power relations, privilege, as well as ethnic and racial divisions (Armytage 2015;Bowman and Park 2014;Bunnell et al. 2012;Eve 2002;Martin et al. 2010;Muttarak 2014). ...
In recent years, research on higher education has increasingly examined the realities of internationalisation, with a particular focus on international students’ experiences and internationalisation at home programs. These studies have explored the friendships of international students, including their relationships with both locals and internationals from other countries. However, local students’ perspectives and experiences of friendship are largely absent from this literature. The few accounts examining local students’ lives explicitly focus on improving their cross-cultural knowledge and engagement, or on rare cases of local–international student friendships. The overriding assumption in this literature is that the understandings and social practises of local students are major barriers to their relationships with internationals. This paper addresses this gap by exploring local students’ perspectives on the absence of friendships with their international peers. We utilise findings from a research project on internationalisation at home, involving interviews and focus groups with local and international students and staff at an Australian university. Focusing on locals’ discussions of potential friendships with internationals, we propose that these missing friendships are an important area of study. We find that these friendships are missing for several interrelated reasons: local–international friendships are considered unnecessary and are therefore unimagined by locals, who tend to assume that similarity and affinity naturally lead to friendships, and the structures and spaces that might facilitate friendships are absent. Ultimately, uncovering why these friendships are missing sheds fuller light on how relationships might be facilitated, potentially informing and improving universities’ internationalisation initiatives.
... The implications are regionally specific, as are the semantics. In Trinidad, the verb "to friend" had previously meant to be involved in a sexual relationship, while in Brazil it is the term one uses to greet the waiter in a restaurant (Rezende 1999). But in every case people seem clear as to the nuances that surround the term friend whether as noun or verb. ...
... There are therefore no arguments in this essay that should detract from the continued research of anthropology on the nuances of kinship or friendship as practice, which includes a greater emphasis upon cultural difference. For example, Simon Bell and Sandra Coleman (1999a) include a paper by Claudia Rezende (1999) that examines other ways the term friend is used idiomatically in various societies, as in Brazil where it expresses an ideal of affinity, or China where it is related to the wider concept of guanxi (Smart 1999). As already noted, the use of friendship as an idiom can also be used to help repair the ruptures to kinship. ...
This article suggests that while anthropologists have developed a highly nuanced analysis of kinship and friendship under a more general comparative study of relationality, this emphasis upon practice needs to be complemented by an alternative focus on the use of these terms as ideology, where we find a more simplistic and dualistic usage. The rise of new social media and the verb friending highlights a more general shift from the idea of fictive kinship to that of fictive friendship, where it is the ideals represented by the supposed voluntarism and authenticity of friendship that has now come to dominate the way people view kin relations. Evidence is provided from ethnographies in the Philippines, Trinidad, and England that illustrate the prevalence of a practice where kin relations reposition themselves under the idiom of friendship with both negative and positive consequences. This incorporation of kinship within friendship can also bring back a sense of rule and obligation, which has led to a decline in the use of Facebook by the young.
... Humans by their very nature are social creatures and, as such, necessarily form strong social bonds, networks or relationshipsthe ultimate of which might be said to be friendships. While having friendships is certainly universal, how they are defined and the extent to which they are permitted arguably depends on very specific societal and cultural values and contexts (Carrier, 1999;Rezende, 1999). The extent of interactions between individuals may be underwritten and guided by "public and private messages circulating in the larger society" (Carrier, 1999, p. 34). ...
... When categories of difference become institutionalized, practice and perceptions of differences become more precise in their definition. Individuals then begin to sort and place individuals on a socially constructed hierarchy of similarity/difference (Rezende, 1999). The relational position of individuals vis a vis others, effects degrees of affinity, and ultimately the development of friendships. ...
... For example, research that has focussed specifically on the construction of difference has highlighted significant similarities across age groups. Children's and adolescents' friends are typically of the same sex (Banks et al, 1992;Walker, 1988), social class (Blackman, 1992;Hey, 1997;Mac an Ghaill, 1994;Rezende, 1999) and ethnic background (Fuller, 1984;Hewitt, 1986;Walker, 1988), leading Jamieson (1998 to conclude that; 'it seems that children quickly learn to reproduce wider social divisions and inequalities' (p.94) -a process which continues into later life. Such claims resonate with wider debates about the extent to which 'youth' constitutes a distinct and easily delineated period in one's life. ...
p>This research explores the role of friends and peers in young people's higher education (HE) choices. Drawing on a longitudinal study of fifteen students at a sixth form college in the south of England, this thesis demonstrates that HE decisions were rarely discussed with friends. It argues that while a majority of students may tell at least some of their friends where they are planning to apply and for what subject, previous quantitative work in this area masks both the complexity of the process of talking about HE choices with friends and the often problematic nature of such discussions. It goes on to suggest that the young people chose not to engage in discussions about HE decisions, not out of a positive choice, but because such discussions were often extremely difficult. Many of these difficulties stemmed from the hierarchical judgements that the young people made about differences (particularly those concerned with academic attainment, higher education institution and degree subject). Such judgements served, in many cases, to undermine the perceived equality of the friendship tie, or at least to emphasise previously latent differences, and for this reason were avoided. It does not, however, necessarily follow from this that friends do not have much influence over young people's HE decisions. Indeed, this thesis also explores the ways in which friends and peers were influential. Friends and the wider peer group provided the context in which young people came to construct a 'hierarchy of students'. Through social and academic comparisons with other young people, they came to work out their own place on this emerging hierarchy. This allowed students to map their own position relative to their peers onto a similar ranking of universities and, thus, to decide which institutions represented a 'feasible' choice.</p
... Debates in anthropology on the nature and qualities of friendship can be split into two blocks: one side deems friendship to be a product of Western individualism (Carrier 1999;Pitt-Rivers 2016), while the other seeks to problematise this view, and to represent friendship in all its inherent diversity (Uhl 1991;Rezende 1999;Killick and Desai 2010;Evans 2010;Torresan 2011). According to the first perspective, friendship is a relationship that plays out in the private sphere and is cemented by mutual sentiment. ...
‘You do not know what it means to me, to be at this kind of party, to talk to these kinds of people’, my research assistant Rodrigo told me after a soirée in the elite South Zone of Rio. ‘É uma viagem’, it’s a journey. Rodrigo, who had already worked with three anthropologists by the time I came to be his employer, thrived with the affordances of friendship, in the face of the volatility of his favela life. He relished ‘mixing groups up’, and this fetish was fed by the overflow of journalists and researchers who in 2015 were covering mega events, favela removals, and policing programs. As the year elapsed, violence in favelas escalated, ‘visiting others’ came and went, and so did Rodrigo’s appetite to befriend the ‘other’. While research on the enabling aspects of friendship’s lack of fixity have been extensive, by exploring our relationship, I seek to address how problematic fluidity and dynamism can be for those who engage in friendship. I will argue that demanding fixity and setting up boundaries can be understood as an enabling process, particularly in the post-colonial, globalized and gravely unequal context of contemporary favelas.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26727099
... One central tenet of friendship, both in general lay understanding and in some anthropological literature, is the presumption of equality. This presumption of equality has been challenged in previous studies (see for example Rezende 1999 'joking out of place' (Goldstein 2003). I use it in quotation marks because it is the term my interlocutors used to describe a particular style of humour between friends that touched upon socially and politically sensitive issues. ...
At the centre of one of the most well-known and seemingly intractable societal conflicts in modern history, a movement of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis has tried over the decades to work towards equality, a shared society, and positive inter-group relationships. Within this movement is the community of Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom (‘Oasis of Peace’ in Arabic and Hebrew), where 30 Jewish families and 30 Palestinian families have chosen to live together and run educational outreach projects to share their theories about peace and equality with others in Israel-Palestine. Key to this moral endeavour is dialogue, which really means being able to talk through difference; villagers believe in talking with each other despite the political and social barriers that may stand in their way, and making those very socio-political differences into objects of discussion. This thesis, based on 17-months fieldwork in Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom, explores three puzzles with implications for the mission of the community as well as anthropological theory. First, what kind of language ideologies underlie the idea of talking as a tool for peace? Second, what concept of difference do community members have, given the potentially negative implications of either emphasizing or downplaying difference? Third, what motivates people in social movements to live their ethical ideals in the everyday? Given the highly politicised context in which the villagers live, and the moral objectives they live by, even seemingly banal linguistic choices can affect relationships. Friendships across difference can be formed, strengthened, or fall apart as the result of verbal and non-verbal interactions — energising those involved when they go well and producing feelings of discomfort or embarrassment when they do not. In sum, this thesis suggests that everyday ethical approaches to difference draw on a mixture of political awareness and sensitivity, explicit theories about the way to engage with others, and the internal dynamics of interactions. These internal dynamics bring up moments of ambiguity that require reflection but also provide the potential for people to challenge their differences and how best to deal with them.
... What interests us here is the variety of meanings that seem to come to mind for Venezuelan adolescents when they talk about friends (cf. Barcellos Rezende, 1999). When asked—via Eurogang Item 1—whether they have a group of friends, which group(s) might they be thinking of when responding affirmatively? ...
Developing valid measures of gang membership for self-report surveys is a challenging task in comparative cross-national research. In this article, we use the Venezuelan case to assess the validity
of the Eurogang indicators of gang membership. Based on focus groups with adolescents and the
results from two sweeps of the International Self-Report Survey of Juvenile Delinquency, we identify
problems in the content and construct validities of the Eurogang items. We propose an alternative
set of measures for cross-national studies of gang membership, focusing on a group’s reputation for
violence (or broader criminal behaviour).
... I svenska språket finns ett talesätt som säger att "lika barn leka bäst", men detta är relativt och ingen förutsättning för vänskap. En intressant beskrivning av vänskap som bryter mot likhetsprincipen återges i en artikel av Rezende där hon kontrasterar begreppen "equality" och "affinity" och visar att relationen mellan brasilianska hembiträden och deras arbetsgivare kan kallas vänskaplig trots ojämlika förhållanden (Rezende, 1999). I Sverige tenderar vi att likställa vänskap med jämlikhet, men Rezende visar att vänskap även kan bygga på komplementära egenskaper och förtroende, men även det man på svenska kallar "personkemi". ...
... This definition is consistent with research that defines friendship as a relationship based on affection, affinities, sentiments and togetherness. 68 But Smart 69 suggests that friendship should not be defined by these affective terms because it is really an idiom of interaction, a way of talking about relationships. This may explain why researchers have differing interpretations of friendship; friendship can be established with anyone, ranging from an acquaintance to a close friend, based on a continuum of intensity and commitment. ...
This study examines how the Winnebago Itasca Travelers (WIT) Club attracts new customers and builds customer loyalty by using vocabularies of motives and core framing activities. Utilising social movement theory, this analysis finds that WIT members have an instrumental vocabulary about potential problems that serve as tools for recruiting new members. The instrumental vocabulary encompasses the diagnostic and prognostic frames of retirement, travel and information. WIT members also utilise an expressive vocabulary justifying their club-related behaviour; these motivational frames of friendship, fellowship and fun provide a rationale for increasing active association within the club. Findings are discussed in the light of relationship marketing.
En este artículo utilizamos el caso venezolano para evaluar la validez
de los indicadores de pertenencia a bandas de la Eurogang.
Basándonos en grupos focales con adolescentes y en los resultados
de dos ediciones de la Encuesta Internacional de Autoinforme sobre
Delincuencia Juvenil (ISRD), identificamos problemas en la validez
de contenido y de constructo de los ítems de la Eurogang.
Proponemos un conjunto alternativo de medidas para los estudios
transnacionales sobre la pertenencia a bandas.
The pandemic’s rupture in people’s lives was felt in a particular way among foreign-born middle-class women in Trondheim. In the situation of unexpected (im)mobility and anxieties related to the pandemic, the lack of close relationships in the local context, was significantly felt. Despite digital acceleration, that was witnessed with pandemic, it highlighted the centrality of local presence and physicality of relations. The pandemic created a situation in which women realised the importance of having friends in the local community to cope with the restrictions and triggered a necessity for the otherwise highly mobile individuals to establish new relationships and explore the local environment. In this article, I discuss the formation of such relationships and the role of social media platforms, more specifically the role of a local social media-based initiative for mobile women with diverse cultural backgrounds. I argue that ‘affective time’ of pandemic created temporalities for forming a community for sharing sufferings, security, and joyful distractions from the crisis. This article considers meaning and experiences of friendship under condition of uncertainty and how relationship-making shape migrant’s woman engagement with the present. I follow a methodology of friendship, developed by Tillmann-Healy (2003), as a useful tool to research friendship-making practices and specifically in times of crisis.
Classical sociological theory has blinded us to how friendships are formed and developed at work. Theories represent work as an organizational setting which is public and impersonal. Keeping work separate from ‘real life’ friends is a familiar theme in the social sciences. In 1964, Peter Berger argued that people ‘do not live where they work’ and that the things that mattered and made our lives meaningful, like intimacy, identity and personal life, belonged to a separate private part of our world. For some, making friends at work can be difficult, suggesting that sometimes a traditional work culture persists. Classical philosophers describe work friendships as false friends, while sociologists have defined work friends as context-specific. Nevertheless context-specific friends remain capable of achieving intimacy.
Friendship is an essential part of human experience, involving ideas of love and morality as well as material and pragmatic concerns. Making and having friends is a central aspect of everyday life in all human societies. Yet friendship is often considered of secondary significance in comparison to domains such as kinship, economics and politics. How important are friends in different cultural contexts? What would a study of society viewed through the lens of friendship look like? Does friendship affect the shape of society as much as society moulds friendship? Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Europe, this volume offers answers to these questions and examines the ideology and practice of friendship as it is embedded in wider social contexts and transformations.
This paper explores ethnography of municipal elections, promise-making and miracles to show how Christians problematise both friendship and politics on a settler frontier in Brazilian Amazonia. Bringing these themes together generates new anthropological perspectives on each, while complimenting Derrida's critique of Schmitt's friend–enemy distinction – his definition of the political. Yet the main ethnographic point complicates the argument that both Schmitt and Brazilianist anthropologists critiquing clientelism have made: that Christianity reflects and legitimises the political order. In contrast, I show how the problem of friendship, produced through Christian concerns with presence, legitimises and deligitimises politics at once. The overarching message is that politics, friendship (sociality) and Christianity – usually kept analytically separate – are uniquely clarified where they intersect, as they pass through persons, who foreground and background these domains themselves.
Despite the contemporary attention paid to the gay male–straight female friendship dyad within popular culture and a growing scholarly interest in male–female friendships, not enough is known about the friendship dynamics between gay men and straight women, particularly in the workplace. I draw upon qualitative findings from in‐depth interviews with 28 gay men employed in a range of work roles in the UK to document their existence and shed light on how gay men understand, value and give meaning to workplace friendships with women. Study findings reveal the paucity of textual cues and practices to direct the development and maintenance of these friendships. Overcoming this, study participants are shown to be inventive in their approach to doing friendship. As problematic as some friendship ties are for understanding differences along the lines of sexuality and gender, the opportunities for challenging heteronormative ways of relating in workplace friendship are regarded as more promising.
This paper re-assesses a comparative sociology of kinship and friendship in East Africa with a particular focus on the Boorana Oromo of Kenya. It argues that the study of kinship dominated the developments of a compara-tive sociology during colonial times and that the post-colonial influences of war, the market and globalization have increased the role of the individual. As a result a comparative sociology of African kinship needs to be un-derstood in relation to comparative sociological studies of friendship in East Africa, particularly associated with the sociology of education.
Despite scholarly efforts to challenge the dualistic stereotype of men as rational and women as emotion experts, academics have paid little attention to the issues that arise when gay and lesbian sexualities are introduced into such debates. This article highlights the heterosexist content of much of the research on gender, emotion and organization, and argues the relevancy of investigating the largely neglected topic of intimacy and friendship in the work lives of gay men. Engaging with feminist, queer and sociological research that examines friendship in the lives of individuals who belong to sexual minority groups, I explore in this study the diversity in the way gay men find and work out intimacy in the context of workplace friendships with other gay men and with heterosexual men and women. The data for this article are drawn from in-depth interviews with ten gay men employed in one UK National Health Service Trust. Study findings problematize conceptualizations of friendships at work as being bereft of intimacy, of little value and clearly distinguishable from business relationships. Dichotomous modes of thinking about the impact of gender and sexuality on intimacy and friendship are also challenged.
Participants were 57 U.S. college students and 56 Polish university students and copper mine workers who judged the intimacy of 9 hypothetical relationships and also rated the intensity of their relationships with a best friend, a friend, and an acquaintance on the Friendship Intensity Measurement Scale (FIMS; T. S. Arunkumar & B. Dharmangadan, 2001). The present results confirmed that people perceive (a) relationships with best friends as more intense and intimate than other friendships and (b) other friendships as more intense and intimate than acquaintanceships. The results also indicated that Americans perceive all of their relationships, ranging from mere acquaintanceships to intimate friendships, as more intense and intimate than do Poles. It was somewhat surprising that there were no sex differences in either country in the perception of relationships. The authors discussed the research in the context of the difficulty of defining what friendship is and how an individual's cultural background might interact with person variables such as age and sex.
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