Replicate Emerson's Roommate Troubles Paper
"Troubles" is a term used in the fields of law and social control to describe the generic everyday conflicts that arise between people. It's the kind of stuff that gives rise to "social control needs" – that which makes difficult conversations, agreed upon rules, norms, mediators, authorities, ombudspersons, lawyers, police, etc. socially useful resources. The term especially applies to relatively "low level stuff" that people often manage to solve relatively informally.
In this project we'll replicate some of the work Robert Emerson has done down at UCLA for the last decade or two. You'll start, of course, by re-reading his paper. Next, all members of this group will divide up the literature he cites and do a little secondary reading and annotating for other members of the group. This material will constitute your "literature review."
Next, each person in this group will do a trial run of interview with someone who is not a friend and debrief with at least one classmate who is not a good friend. Once the kinks are worked out, you will complete three interviews and write them up and contribute to the group's data pool.
Project: Your task will be to supplement Emerson's article on roommate troubles using your own data. You will need to base it on at least 6 interviews.
/soc112:assignments-and-exercises/Emerson-Roommate-Interview-RMTINTG.pdf
/soc112:assignments-and-exercises/Emerson-Roommate-Interview-RMTINTG.DOC