Table of Contents

Introduction

1Structure of Waiting

2Waiting Places

3Wait Utilization

4Waiting for Service

5Wait Explanations

6Business of Waiting

7Waiting with Strangers

8Alternatives to Waiting

9Emotion and Waiting

Conclusion

About the Author

Paul Christopher Price is associate professor of sociology at the Pasadena City College and author of Social Control at Opportunity Boys Home: How Staff Control Juvenile Inmates.

Reviews

Paul Price’s The Sociology of Waiting: How Americans Wait presents a comprehensive analysis of the ubiquitous process of “waiting”: a situation we often “lament” but do not often “interrogate.” Price’s searing analysis of waiting in a host of social situations reveals “the waiting game” in ways that enable us to see waiting in a different light. After reading this book, you will never view waiting the same way. This book is a sociological delight!
*Melvin L. Oliver, President, Pitzer College*

In his new monograph, Price paints a revealing portrait of the culture of waiting. Readers are treated to his copious field notes and compelling observations that detail an ethnography of the queue, including the circumstances in which people are encouraged to 'hurry up and wait.' This work is illuminating, timely, and important.
*Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology, Yale University, author of The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life and Code of the Street*