The story that my dissertation tells about scrapbooking is about how scrapbooking is a way to both view the world and communicate that one’s life has value. Most scrapbookers come to view the world through the eyes of a member of the scrapbooking subculture (or thought community). Scrapbooking becomes a structure through which people live their lives.
For those of you really interested in all the nitty-gritty details of my dissertation, please email me at stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com and I will email you a pdf of my dissertation. In my dissertation, I have a whole chapter devoted to theory—the theoretical framework for my dissertation. My guess is that most of my blog readers are not all that interested in the theoretical background so I will not bore you with the details here.
I will tell you about my sample today. I interviewed 59 people. Eleven of my respondents worked in the scrapbook industry (industry workers). Actually, today I will just tell you about the industry workers. Industry workers worked in the industry from 2-12 years. Industry workers worked at local scrapbook stores, were scrapbooking educators, owned their own scrapbooking businesses (local scrapbook stores and kit clubs), and worked as direct sellers.
Only three industry workers worked in the industry full-time. The rest had other full-time employment or were full-time students. This is important. Most industry workers were not in the industry to support themselves or their families. Don’t get me wrong, their families may have depended on their income, but most industry workers are do not earn enough to completely support their family. Many industry workers work in the industry for extra spending money, for a discount on scrapbook supplies, or both. Most work in the industry because they love scrapbooking. They don’t do it for the money.
All of the industry workers were heterosexual women. One was black; the remaining ten were white. Eight were married, the other three were single. Six had children. All industry workers had at least a Bachelor’s degree except for the two workers who were currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree program (and have since earned their degrees).
Next Wednesday I will tell you about my sample of scrapbookers.
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Stephanie Medley-Rath is a sociologist and scrapbooker who studies scrapbooking and memory keeping. Scrapworthy Lives is a blog focused on her sociological analysis of scrapbooking, with a sprinkling of posts about Stephanie's own scrapbooking projects.
