Anonymous, 1st Edition

“Anonymous does what sociology does best: to take a concept (in this case anonymity and pseudonymity) and explore it as a performative practice, a practice of sociality, and as linked to institutional structures. This book is a major addition to the sociological canon.” – Gary Alan Fine, author of Fair Share: Senior Activism, Tiny Publics, and the Culture of Resistance
“Attention must be paid! In this performance, grounded in the traditions of symbolic interaction, Thomas DeGloma has produced a foundational book for an emerging field, a field badly in need of one. As digital technologies continue to alter the, meaning, discovery, hiding and validation of identity, understanding anonymity and its’ extended family (e.g. pseudonymity, pseudo-anonymity, secrecy, privacy, surveillance and so much more), is ever more important. The book’s useful concepts bring coherence and integration to a plentitude of engaging empirical examples across cultures and time periods. Most welcome!”
– Gary T. Marx, author of Windows into the Soul: Surveillance and Society in an Age of High Technology
“DeGloma’s book is a masterful work of scholarship, creative, and wry, identifying the formal characteristics of interactions that link many different areas of social action… . a conceptually and empirically engrossing and delightful read… Anonymous takes us on a perspective-bending ride, revealing what was hiding in plain sight.” * Symbolic Interaction *

“Anonymous both points out, and theorizes, a social dimension that we continuously struggle with as we both perform and mask our identities. By outlining anonymity in such a way, along with its possibilities and variations, the book is both important in its own right, and— as is the mark of a truly important project—an opening salvo in further theorizing this crucial aspect of social life.”

Thomas DeGloma is associate professor of sociology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of Seeing the Light: The Social Logic of Personal Discovery and coeditor of Interpreting Contentious Memory: Countermemories and Social Conflicts Over the Past and The Oxford Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism.

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