‘I was a Sociological Stranger’: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Undercover Performance in the Publication of <italic>The Taxi‐Dance Hall</italic>, 1925–1932.
From 1926 to 1928, Paul G. Cressey, a graduate student in sociology, assumed the role of ‘sociological stranger’ and frequented Chicago’s taxi-dance halls on a nightly basis. Under the guise of a paying customer, Cressey purchased dances, engaged in conversations and documented the life stories of m...
| Published in: | Gender & History Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 131 - 153 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Mar2018
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=128459096&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 128459096 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09535233 BPJ jtl: Gender & History issn: 09535233 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Mar2018 vid: 30 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 128459096 10.1111/1468-0424.12340 ppf: 131 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 198KB tig: atl: ‘I was a Sociological Stranger’: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Undercover Performance in the Publication of <italic>The Taxi‐Dance Hall</italic>, 1925–1932. aug: au: Fritz, Angela su: Cressey, Paul Goalby Taxi-Dance Hall: A Sociological Study in Commercialized Recreation & City Life, The (Book) Dance halls Sociological research Taxi dancers Sociology methodology Class differences sug: subj: Cressey, Paul Goalby Taxi-Dance Hall: A Sociological Study in Commercialized Recreation & City Life, The (Book) Dance halls Sociological research Taxi dancers Sociology methodology Class differences ab: From 1926 to 1928, Paul G. Cressey, a graduate student in sociology, assumed the role of ‘sociological stranger’ and frequented Chicago’s taxi-dance halls on a nightly basis. Under the guise of a paying customer, Cressey purchased dances, engaged in conversations and documented the life stories of many taxi dancers. In 1932, his revised thesis was published as The Taxi-Dance Hall: A Sociological Study of Commercialized Recreation and City Life. This article seeks to re-read Cressey’s original notes, research journals and ‘life histories’ of taxi dancers to show how class, ethnic and gendered power relationships often distorted his empirical investigation, which were reliant on undercover performance, subjective observations and misleading interviews. Finally, this essay seeks to ‘surface’ taxi dancers’ counternarratives to illuminate women’s own perspectives on the nature of their work, as well as their interpretations of workplace strategies, negotiations and personal motivations. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Gender & History is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Gender & History holder: Wiley-Blackwell dt: @attributes: year: 2018 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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