Opening talk with strangers fails in spaces governed by task-focused norms

Evidence

In the winter of 1962-3, Elmer and Alfred attempted access in libraries and museums. Elmer liked to station himself near the psychology section of a library, observe in what books people were browsing, and wander about the reading rooms noting what books were being read. Upon finding a person involved in a book imagined to be “cosmic” in concern (books on psychology, religion or world affairs), he would stay close by the person, waiting for an occurrence that could bring about a conversation. Elmer did much looking but he rarely found an opportunity to talk and often complained about the difficulties of striking up a conversation with strangers. Access was equally difficult in museums. While walking around looking at the exhibits, Alfred’s ploy was to station himself next to a co-patronizer and hope for a likely opening. He complained that it was difficult to. make such an opening. If you looked at a work while standing beside a stranger and said, “That is certainly an interesting bear” (or whatever), they tended to “look at you as if you are some kind of nut” and walk away. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1012

Categorization

• XREF: Deeply relevant to the reader’s cross-reading: this is concrete empirical grounding for Simmel’s blasé attitude and the normative walls against stranger contact. Library/museum norms make unscripted approach read as deviance. — connects to: Etiquette regulates which conversations get a comfortable public context — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 180