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Acknowledgments Over the course of writing this book I have incurred many intellectual debts. Thanks are due first and foremost to Mel Pollner. His intellectual sensitivities and investigations of the variegated nature of personal being, the ultimate fluidity of social forms, and the social boundaries of reason have been both foundational to my scholarly development and a personal inspiration. Next, to Bob Emerson who taught me virtually everything I know about fieldwork and ethnography. Without his painstaking cultivation of my incipient (and insipid) insights in the field, this project would have never left the ground. To Harold Garfinkel for his passionate regard for the “what more’’there is to social lifeanditsstudy,andthe“whatmore’’theremightbetomyowncapacity for insight. To Stuart Kirk for coming to UCLA in the nick of time and for his interest in my project and willingness to let it germinate as it has. To Paul Koegel for getting me into this project in the first place, for his many, many hands-on contributions to the fieldwork and the thinking that is its basis, and for his early faith in me. To Jim Holstein and Jay Gubrium for forging much of the path that I have taken, and to Jay for his generosity and guidance during the three years I spent with him at the University of Florida. To Bryan Turner for refining my thinking on so many topics but in particular those on the interface of medicine and social inclusion. I would also like to thank Doni Loseke, Spencer Cahill, Gale Miller, Joel Best, John Heritage, Jack Katz, Ivan Szeleyni, Steve Clayman, Manny Schegloff, Peter Kollock, Jeff Prager, Jeff Alexander, Rogers Brubaker, Mike Lynch, David Bogen, Dusan Bjelic, David Goode, John A. Hall, Peter Ibarra, John Kitsuse, and Bennett Berger for teaching me and for their help along the way. This project has also benefited immensely from the countless conversations and debates I have shared with my friends: Geoff Raymond, Byron Burkhalter, Larry King, Dana Rosenfeld, Patrick Baert, Eric Hanley, Marc Smith, Christine Morton, Eric Rivera, Benita Roth, Susan Markens, Dave Grant, Margie Zamudio, Andy Roth, Nick Wolfinger, Eric Magnuson, Gil Eyal, Stavros Karageorgis, Manali Desai, Eleanor Townsley, and Dylan Riley. Thanks as well to Doug Anglin, and everyone at the Drug Abuse Research Center, for expanding the xix xx Acknowledgments scope of my intellectual horizons well beyond the boundaries of sociology and compelling me to think more seriously about the relationship between the social and clinical sciences. To everyone on the “Course of Homelessness’’ and “Treatment Options’’ studies at Rand, but particularly Audrey Burnam and Elizabeth McGlynn for bringing me aboard and Bud Hayes for his generosity of time and spirit. The bulk of my data collection and some of the analysis were funded by NIAAA Grant 1 VO1 AA08821 and NIDA Institutional Training Grant No. DA07272. I would also like to thank Micah Kleit, my editor at Temple University Press, for his enthusiasm and thoughtful advice. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with him. No words can repay the debt I owe the many people who allowed me into their lives and who graciously helped me try to understand their worlds. Finally, I want to thank Diana for giving me a place to call home through all of this and my little boys Ethan and Tristan for making that home an infinitely more beautiful place to live. ...

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