Inequality, Rules of Irrelevance, and Recognition in Broken Friendships. Issue 3 (16th February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Eramian, Laura; Mallory, Peter
• Is Part Of: Symbolic interaction. Volume 45:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 403
• Page End: 424
• Publication Date: 2022-02-16
• Subjects: friendship -- inequality -- personal life -- relationship breakdown; Symbolic interactionism -- Periodicals; Interactionnisme symbolique -- Périodiques; 302
• DOI: 10.1002/symb.589
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0195-6086

Abstract

Abstract : Friendship depends on equality, yet friends are seldom fully equal. In this article, we investigate failed and difficult friendships through attention to the relationship between (in)equality, recognition, and "rules of irrelevance." Based on interviews in an Atlantic Canadian city, we argue that since friendship offers the chance to develop an identity and be recognized as a whole person, it encounters difficulty when friends will not or cannot enact rules of irrelevance around their inequalities. We identify four flashpoints that may undermine those rules of irrelevance: authority over a friend, unequal cultural capital, suffusion of work relations and friendship, and complexities of cross‐gender friendships.