Most of the time, we believe our daily lives to be governed by structures determined from above: laws that dictate our behavior, companies that pay our wages, even climate patterns that determine what we eat or where we live. In contrast, social orga...

A chess match seems as solitary an endeavor as there is in sports: two minds, on their own, in fierce opposition. In contrast, Gary Alan Fine argues that chess is a social duet: two players in silent dialogue who always take each other into account i...

In "Talking Art", acclaimed ethnographer Gary Alan Fine gives us an eye-opening look at the contemporary university-based master's-level art program. Through an in-depth analysis of the practice of the critique and other aspects of the curriculum, Fi...

Whether it is used as an icebreaker in conversation or as the subject of serious inquiry, "the weather" is one of the few subjects that everyone talks about. And though we recognize the faces that bring us the weather on television, how government me...