The Explanation Of Street Corner Society: Street Corner Society

Pages 94 - 108 discuss the floor and how the girls interacted with one another upon move in day and throughout the semester. The section begins with a description of Alana who felt a lack of connection with the girls on her floor. The other girls on her floor had only hung out with her once, and they used her as a designated driver causing Alana to not want to return to MU her sophomore year. By the end of the year, half the floor were defined as isolates including Alana because they can only claim one other friend (other than roommate) on the floor. Eighteen of these twenty five women were from less privileged families. They are “less likely to have the funds, time, social tastes, and knowledge necessary to successfully engage in college social life” causing them to have trouble fitting in (Armstrong/Hamilton, 96).
This section also discusses a phenomenon called “The Vampire Effect”. Initially, many individuals would probably assume that since there were twenty five women who were labeled as isolates, they would form a group together and become friends. However, due to “The Vampire Effect” this bonding did not occur. The isolates found it difficult “to locate each other because the louder, more

Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum concerns social ranking within a group including a leader and his followers whereas Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality focuses on social ranking separating into different groups. In Street Corner Society, one recurring topic was the idea that good scores were expected of the leaders in the bowling game while bad scores were expected of the followers. There isn’t a specific way to keep track of this like it is in the bowling game in Paying for the Party, but the high-income individuals are clearly benefiting much more from MU than the remaining individuals