Unpolitical sociability supplies the familiarity that later enables civic engagement.

Evidence

Such sociable gatherings can be fertile ground for political life. While not exclusively or even primarily politically motivated, these gatherings offer the familiarity that is a necessary precondition for some kinds of public life. Sociable familiar gatherings can create an infinitely nuanced stock of common sense and feeling, common knowledge and myths, common style, rhythm, and manners; background knowledge for how to act and how to be. Every day, people go to work, get stuck in traffic jams, pay bills, become involuntarily entangled with anonymous strangers; in the sociable public sphere, in contrast, people affirm voluntary connections to particular people. Whether for reading poetry aloud, debating playfully, playing music, joking, putting on plays, dancing, bowling, playing soccer, these usually unpolitical grounds for common life and meaning-making often make political life possible. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 126

Categorization

• QUESTION: Central to the reader’s solidarity question: does she find that gatherings explicitly NOT about enemy-othering create the shared common sense that later grounds political life — or does her fieldwork show these fraternal grounds dissipating political talk instead?
• XREF: Direct evidence thread for ‘solidarity through positive shared projects’ — the alternatives-to-out-group model; parallels bowling-alone and associational life literature (Putnam, Sennett, Rosenzweig). — connects to: Shared sociable activity builds the civic bonds democracy requires. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 123; Civic strangers may converse once familiarity legitimates the approach — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1015; Social trust and civic engagement co-vary across societies as one underlying factor. — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: America’s Declining…, 59 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Building inward-facing social ties is a prerequisite for later outward political action #corroborates (0.95) — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1437
• Shared sociable activity builds the civic bonds democracy requires. #corroborates (0.82) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 123
• Social trust and civic engagement co-vary across societies as one underlying factor. #corroborates (0.80) — Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone, 59
• Civic strangers may converse once familiarity legitimates the approach #expands (0.78) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1015
• Engagement with the social level, not avoidance, strengthens character. #qualifies (0.72) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 2001