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Mara B. Adelman & Lawrence R. Frey, The fragile community: Living together with AIDS. (Everyday communication: Case studies of behavior in context.) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1997. Pp. xii, 128. Hb $36.00, pb $16.50.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2000

Anssi Peräkylä
Anssi Peräkylä
Affiliation:
Social Psychology, University of Tampere, PO Box 607, 33101 Tampere, Finland, anssi.perakyla@uta.fi
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Abstract

In his book The sacred canopy, Peter Berger wrote, that in the last analysis, “society” is people banded together in the face of death (1967:51). Adelman and Frey have written a small but fascinating study about this very topic. Theirs is an ethnographic study on a residential facility called Bonaventure House (BH), run by a Catholic order, the Alexian Brothers of America. The residents suffer from AIDS; and during the time of the study, BH was for most of them their last home before death. Using participant observation, interviews and questionnaires, Adelman & Frey set out to study how community is built and sustained in these circumstances: People afflicted by a dreaded illness share their everyday lives; death occurs regularly; and the departed are replaced by new people, who become part of the community.

Type
Book Review
Information
Language in Society , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , April 2000 , pp. 277 - 279
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

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