The Hidden Life of Girls
Games of Stance, Status, and Exclusion
Blackwell Studies in Discourse and Culture

1. Auflage November 2006
342 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Winner of the Best Book of 2008 from The International
Gender and Language Association
In this ground-breaking ethnography of girls on a playground,
Goodwin offers a window into their complex social worlds.
* Combats stereotypes that have dominated theories on female
moral development by challenging the notion that girls are
inherently supportive of each other
* Examines the stances that girls on a playground in a
multicultural school setting assume and shows how they position
themselves in their peer groups
* Documents the language practices and degradation rituals used
to sanction friends and to bully others
* Part of the href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-410785.html"
target="_blank">Blackwell Studies in Discourse and Culture
Series
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
1. Introduction.
2. Multimodality, Conflict, and Rationality in Girls'
Games.
3. Social Dimensions of a Popular Girls' Clique.
4. Social Organization, Opposition, and Directives in the Game
of Jump Rope.
5. Language Practices for Indexing Social Status: Stories,
Descriptions, Brags, and Comparisons.
6. Stance and Structure in Assessment and Gossip Activity.
7. Constructing Social Difference and Exclusion in Girls'
Groups.
8. Conclusion.
Appendix A: Transcription Symbols.
Appendix B: Jump Rope Rhymes.
Notes.
References.
Author Index.
Subject Index
and the close study of social interaction. Written with wonderfully
clear prose, it will make an excellent textbook for undergraduate
courses on language and social interaction, the ethnography of
communication, and linguistic anthropology. I can attest also to
its appropriateness for graduate level classes-I found that it
prompted extensive discussion on a wide range of topics ... .It
goes without saying that this is required reading for anyone who
studies either gender or children or both from an anthropological,
psychological, or sociological perspective." (Journal of
Anthropological Research, November 2008)
"Combining ethnographic fieldwork in neighborhood and
school grounds with micro-analysis of both discursive and
non-discursive situated practices, it offers a powerful and rare
look into the social dynamics of girls' social life. The author
moves within and between the various data sets she has gathered
over the years with elegance, offering multifaceted analyses of
particular interactional moments and communicative practices in
ways that make them speak to and illuminate each other. The book,
then, offers both rich and rigorous ways of looking at children's
naturally situated conduct that speak to larger concerns of social
science research. It is clearly of great value to students of
language and social interaction, interpersonal communication
scholars, and researchers concerned with the development of
communication competence or with group processes, to mention but
some of the more obvious subfields in our discipline for which this
book will prove to be a great asset." (International
Journal of Communication, Spring 2008)
"A powerful [and] provocative read... Highly
recommended" (Choice)
"Hidden Life develops into an engrossing read ... .One
of Hidden Life's strengths is Goodwin's diverse sample
of Latino, Asian, African American, and Caucasian
girls."
(Feminist Collections)
"Rich analysis ... .Full of rich and diverse data
... and important policy recommendations. Shines a bright light
on the complexity ... of preadolescent girls." (Sex
Roles)
"This fascinating and important book gives us a rarely seen inside
perspective on the dynamics of girls' social negotiation,
contestation, and hierarchy. Critically addressing key
misrepresentations and omissions of children's life-worlds in
previous scholarship, Goodwin provides a much-needed counterpoint
to that research and puts girls' experiences squarely at the center
of her analysis." -Mary Bucholtz, University of
California, Santa Barbara
"As she did with He-Said-She-Said in 1990, in this book
Goodwin sets a new standard for the ethnographic study of social
interaction. As the title suggests, standard techniques of the
social sciences leave much of girls' social life hidden from view
and insulated from analysis. Goodwin's book offers an important
corrective: Through a focus on the actual practices of talk and
embodied conduct, Goodwin shows how in constructing the
hierarchies, divisions, and exclusions constitutive of their social
groups, these girls define their own moral order." -Jack
Sidnell, University of Toronto