Spencer, L. and R. E. Pahl (2006). Rethinking friendship: hidden solidarities today. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Rethinking Friendship investigates the nature of friendship today, building on the long tradition within sociology of studying the bonds of community. This book is based on qualitative methods including a range of in-depth interviews (through purposive sampling) that have been analysed using Framework thematic analysis. The authors create a typology of 'personal communities', developing a set of concepts including: friendship repertoires (the range of friendships people have); friendship modes (the way people make and maintain friendships over time); and patterns of suffusion (the extent to which boundaries between friends and family become blurred). The authors show that people have a wide variety of relationships with their friends, suggesting that despite changing patterns of friendship over time, there is little evidence to support claims that modernity and globalisation are causing community decline.