In this study I explore boundary work processes that older adults do which influences friendships among residents of a progressive care retirement community. Accounts of boundary work as mechanisms for including some and excluding other residents as potential friends were collected by using a combination of quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews from residents (age 65+) of a progressive care retirement community in the United States. First, a survey explored symbolic boundaries related to cultural capital, defined as music and leisure interest and participation, as well as structural and social aspects of friendships among residents (N=66). Second, in-depth interviews of a sub-sample of residents of an assisted living facility within the community (N=15), were conducted to examine older adults' narratives of how they use cultural capital as a mechanism of symbolic boundary work that influences their friendships with others in the retirement community. The administrator of the assisted living facility (N=1) was also interviewed. Findings from this study suggested that cultural capital was associated with sociability which offers some support for the relational "tool kit" model of the theory. However, findings from in-depth interviews suggested that while music and leisure interests and participation may be important, valuations of bodies were more likely to influence "othering" of residents, although the two are related. This study enriches our understanding of how symbolic boundary use varies by group and context, as well as makes theoretical contributions to the literature on symbolic boundaries by exploring the ways in which aging may alter the use of boundaries. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the musical tastes of the primary children in ten schools within a radius of fifty miles of Bellevue, Texas.

« Musiques traditionnelles», « musiques du monde» ou « musiques tradiporaines » d'aujourd'hui, « musiques folkloriques » d'hier, « musiques de nos racines », toutes les époques ont été saisies par un intérêt de sauvegarde des musiques populaires, les inscrivant de manière différenciée dans le contexte social. Cette recherche interroge, à partir d'un regard sociologique, l'ordinaire et l'extra-ordinaire des musiciens amateurs, par le prisme leur pratique musicale en tant que moyen de construire une réalité sociale. C'est donc l'articulation de cette pratique avec un ensemble de valeurs et de symboles qui sous-tendra l'ensemble de ce questionnement. A partir de la pratique musicale amateur, il s'agit de comprendre les enjeux sociaux d'un courant musical en pleine expansion. Notre interrogation centrale consiste à savoir si la musique participe à la structuration du monde social, avec ses conventions, son mode de fonctionnement, ses symboles et ses référents. Comment le goût pour un répertoire musical,générateur de symboles et des valeurs va-t-il trouver écho dans des pratiques ordinaires, participant à un processus de bricolage (De Certeau 1990) du quotidien ? En analysant les pratiques musicales en amateur, nous cherchons à décrire les affinités électives (Weber, 1989) existantes entre un courant musical et la construction d'un ordinaire. / Every age has sought to preserve popular forms of music, by integrating them in differentiated ways into the social context; this applies equally to the ‘folk music' or ‘ancestral music' of the past or to contemporary ‘traditional music', ‘world music' or ‘fusion hybrids of contemporary and traditional music (tradiporaine music).' Adopting a sociological approach, this study explores how amateur traditional musicians construct a particular social reality through their musical practices, by researching the everyday life of amateur musicians, as well as their exceptional musical experiences. The central aim of this research is to interrogate the relationship between their musical practices and the framework of values and symbolic meanings in which these practices are embedded. An examination of amateur traditional musical practices provides us with insights into the complex process by which these musical forms are socially constructed – musical forms that are currently growing in popularity. The central question which this study will explore is whether music contributes to structuring social parameters through its conventions, its way of functioning, its symbols and its references. How does an interest in a particular musical repertoire, which embodies a series of values and symbolic meanings, relate to everyday practices, which in turn contribute to a process of bricolage of the quotidian experience? (De Certeau 1990) By analysing amateur traditional musical practices this study will seek to describe the formation of selective affinities (Weber, 1989) between a particular type of music and the construction of a sense of everyday social reality.