Human Service Ethnography

Gubrium, J.F., & Jacobsson, K. (Eds.) (2021). Doing human service ethnography. Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1sfsdm3.5

Boylstein, C., Rittman, M., Gubrium, J., Behrman, A., & Davis, S. (2005). The social organization of constraint-induced movement therapy. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 42(3), 263–275. https://doi.org/10.1682/JRRD.2004.02.0021

Gubrium, J.F. (1993). Speaking of Life: Horizons of Meaning for Nursing Home Residents. Aldine de Gruyter.

Gubrium, J.F. (1992). Out of control: Family therapy and domestic disorder. Sage.

Gubrium, J.F. (1991). The mosaic of care: Frail elderly and their families in the real world. Springer.

Gubrium, J.F. (1988). Rationality and practical reasoning in human service organization. In P. Higgins & J.M. Johnson (Eds.), Personal sociology. Praeger.

Gubrium, J.F. (1986). Oldtimers and Alzheimer’s: The descriptive organization of senility. JAI Press.

Gubrium, J.F., & Buckholdt, D. R. (1982). Describing care: Image and practice in rehabilitation. Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain.

Gubrium, J. F. (1980). Patient exclusion in geriatric staffings. The Sociological Quarterly, 21(3), 335–347. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1980.tb00616.x

Gubrium, J.F. (1979). Observing the individual problems of human service records. Humanity and Society, 3, 260-274.

Buckholdt, D. R., & Gubrium, J.F. (1979). Caretakers: Treating emotionally disturbed children. Sage.

Gubrium, J.F. (1975/1995). Living and dying at Murray Manor. University of Virginia Press.

Aging and the Life Course 

Gubrium, J.F. (2019). The fluid complexity of residential choices in later life. Innovation in Aging, 3(Suppl. 1), S223. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igz038.817

Gubrium, J.F. (2015). Benchmarking the end of life in long-term care. In J. F. Nussbaum, H. Giles, & A.K. Worthington (Eds.), Communication at the end of life (pp. 43-60). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1366-6

Gubrium, J.F. (2011). Narrative events and biographical construction in old age. In G. Kenyon, E. Bohlmeijer, & W. Randall (Eds.), Storying later life: Issues, investigations, and interventions in narrative gerontology (pp. 39-50). Oxford University Press.

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (2007). Constructionist perspectives on the life course. Sociology Compass, 1(1), 335-352. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00004.x 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2006). Biographical work and the future of the ageing self. In J.A. Vincent, C. Phillipson, & M. Downs (Eds.), The futures of old age (pp. 117-124). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446211533 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (Eds.). (2003). Beyond stereotypes. In J.F. Gubrium & J.A. Holstein (Eds.), Ways of aging (pp. 3-10).. Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756157 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2003). The everyday visibility of the aging body. In C. A. Faircloth. (Ed.), Aging bodies: Images & everyday experience (pp. 205-227). AltaMira.

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (2003). The life course. In L.T. Reynolds & N.J. Herman-Kinney (Eds.), Handbook of symbolic interactionism (pp. 837-856). Rowman & Littlefield.

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2002). Going concerns and their bodies. In L. Andersson (Ed.), Cultural gerontology (pp. 191-206). Praeger. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781440881640.ch-013 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2002). The active subject in qualitative gerontology. In G. Rowles & N. Schoenberg (Eds.), Qualitative gerontology (2nd ed.) (pp. 154-171). Springer.

Gubrium, J.F. (2001). Narrative, experience, and aging. In G. Kenyon, P. Clark, & B. de Vries (Eds.), Narrative gerontology: Theory, research, and practice (pp. 19-30). Springer.

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (2000). Constructing the life course. Rowman & Littlefield.

Lyman, K., Gubrium, J., & Holstein, J. (2000). Aging and Everyday Life. Blackwell.

Gubrium, J.F. & Holstein, J.A. (1999). The nursing home as a discursive anchor for the ageing body. Ageing and Society, 19(5), 519-538. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X99007448 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (1995). Life course malleability: Biographical work and deprivatization. Sociological Inquiry, 65(2), 207-223. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1995.tb00413.x 

Gubrium, J.F. (1993). Voice and context in a new gerontology. In T.R. Cole, W.A. Achenbaum, P.L. Jakobi & R. Kastenbaum (Eds.), Voices and visions of aging: Toward a critical gerontology (pp. 46–63). Springer.

Gubrium, J. F. (1992). Qualitative research comes of age in gerontology. The Gerontologist, 32(5), 581–582. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/32.5.581

Gubrium, J.F. (1991). The mosaic of care: Frail elderly and their families in the real world. Springer.

Gubrium, J.F., & Wallace, J.B. (1990). Who theorizes age? Ageing and Society, 10, 131–149.

Gubrium, J.F., & Lynott, R.J. (1983). Rethinking life satisfaction. Human Organization, 42(1), 30-38. https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.42.1.jl6373335165873n 

Gubrium, J.F., & Buckholdt, D.R. (1977). Toward maturity: The social processing of human development. Jossey-Bass.

Constructions of Family and Domestic Life

Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (2012). Theoretical validity and empirical utility of a constructionist analytics. The Sociological Quarterly, 53(3), 341–359. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2012.01239.x 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2009). Phenomenology, ethnomethodology, and family discourse. In P. Boss, W.J. Doherty, R. LaRossa, W.R. Schumm, & S.K. Steinmetz (Eds.), Sourcebook of family theories and methods (pp. 651-675). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85764-0_25 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (Eds.) (2005). Couples, kids, and family life. Oxford University Press. 

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (1999). What is family? Further thoughts on a social constructionist approach. In B.H. Settles & S. Steinmetz (Eds.), Concepts and Definitions of Family for the 21st Century (pp. 3-20). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203357842 

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (1995). Deprivatization and the construction of domestic life. Journal of Marriage and Family, 57(4), 894-908.

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (1993). Family discourse, organizational embeddedness, and local enactment. Journal of Family Issues, 14(1), 66-81. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0192513X93014001006 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (1990). What is family? Mayfield.

Gubrium, J.F. (1988). The family as project. Sociological Review, 36(2), 273-295. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1988.tb00838 

Gubrium, J.F. (1987). Organizational embeddedness and family life. In T. Brubaker (Ed.), Aging, health, and family: Long-term care (pp. 23-41). Sage.

Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (1987). The private image: Experiential location and method in family studies. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49(4), 773–786. https://doi.org/10.2307/351971 

Gubrium, J.F., and Lynott, R.J. (1985). Family rhetoric as social order. Journal of Family Issues, 6, 129-151.

Gubrium, J.F., & Buckholdt, D.R. (1982). Fictive family: Everyday usage, analytic, and human service considerations. American Anthropologist, 84(4), 878-885. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1982.84.4.02a00120 

Stroke, Dementia (AD), and Caregiving 

Gubrium, J.F. (2020). The social preservation of mind: The Alzheimer’s disease experience. Symbolic Interaction, 9(1), 37-51. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1986.9.1.37

Faircloth, C.A., Boylstein, C., Rittman, M., Gubrium, J.F. (2005). Constructing the stroke: Sudden-onset narratives of stroke survivors. Qualitative Health Research, 15(7):928-941. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305277842 

Gubrium, J.F., Rittman, M.R., Williams, C., Young, M.E., & Boylstein, C.A. (2003). Benchmarking as everyday functional assessment in stroke recovery. Journal of Gerontology, 58B(4), S203-S211. https://10.1093/geronb/58.4.s203

Gubrium, J.F. (2000). Narrative practice and the inner worlds of the Alzheimer's disease experience. In P.J. Whitehouse, K. Maurer, & J.F. Ballenger (Eds.), Concepts of Alzheimer's disease: Biological, clinical and cultural perspectives (pp. 181-203). Johns Hopkins University Press.

Gubrium, J.F. (1989). Emotion work and emotive discourse in the Alzheimer's disease experience. In G. Unruh (Ed.), Current perpectives on aging and the life cycle (Vol. 3) (pp. 243-268). JAI Press.

Gubrium, J.F. (1988). Family responsibility and caregiving in the qualitative analysis of the Alzheimer’s disease experience. Journal of Marriage and Family, 50(1), 197-207. https://doi.org/10.2307/352439 

Gubrium, J.F. (1988). Incommunicables and poetic documentation in the Alzheimer’s disease experience. Semiotica, 72(3-4), 235-254. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1988.72.3-4.235 

Gubrium, J. F. (1987). Structuring and destructuring the course of illness: The Alzheimer’s disease experience. Sociology of Health & Illness, 9(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.ep11343397 

Gubrium, J. F., & Lynott, R. J. (1987). Measurement and the interpretation of burden in the Alzheimer's disease experience. Journal of Aging Studies, 1(3), 265–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/0890-4065(87)90018-1 

Gubrium, J.F. (1986). The social preservation of mind: The Alzheimer's disease experience. Symbolic Interaction, 9(1), 37-51. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1986.9.1.37 

Gubrium, J.F., & Lynott, R.J. (1985). Alzheimer's disease as biographical work. In W. Peterson and J. Quadagno (Eds.) Social bonds in later life (pp. 349-367). Sage.

Buckholdt, D.R., & Gubrium, J.F. (1983). Therapeutic pretense in reality orientation. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 16(3), 167-181. https://doi.org/10.2190/1MQ8-TQ9R-MFWU-X55N 

Gubrium, J.F. (1981). Doing care plans in patient conferences. Social Science & Medicine Part A: Medical Psychology & Medical Sociology, 14(6), 659-667. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0271-7123(80)80076-9 

Gubrium, J.F. (1978). Notes on the social organization of senility. Urban Life, 7(1), 23-44. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124167800700102 

Interviews and Narrative Ethnography

Marvasti, A.B. & Gubrium, J.F. (2025). Interviews as Activated Storytelling: Contexts and Subjectivities. Routledge.

Gubrium, J.F., Holstein, J.A. & Marvasti, A.B. (2025). Narrative ethnography and everyday storytelling. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative Research 6E. Sage. 

Holstein, J.A. & Gubrium, J.F. (2025). The active interview as narrative practice. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative Research 6E. Sage.

Marvasti, A.B., & Gubrium, J.F. (2023). Crafting Ethnographic Fieldwork: Sites, Selves, and Social Worlds. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003275121

Holstein, J.A. & Gubrium, J.F. (2021). Interviewing as a form of narrative practice. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative research (pp. 69-86). Sage.

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2014). Analytic inspiration in ethnographic fieldwork. In U. Flick (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis (pp. 35-48). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446282243.n3

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2012). Narrative practice and the transformation of interview subjectivity. In J.F. Gubrium, J.A. Holstein, A.B. Marvasti, & K.D. McKinney (Eds.) The SAGE handbook of interview research: The complexity of the craft (2nd ed.) (pp. 27-43). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218403 

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (Eds.). (2012). Varieties of narrative analysis. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781506335117 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2012). Don’t argue with the members. The American Sociologist, 43, 85-98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-011-9145-y

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (2011). The constructionist analytics of interpretive practice. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp. 341-357). Sage.

Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (2011). Animating interview narratives. Qualitative research, 3, 149–167.

Gubrium, J.F. (2010). Another turn to narrative practice. Narrative Inquiry, 20(2), 387–391. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.20.2.10gub

Gubrium, J.F. (2009). How Murray Manor became an ethnography. In A. Puddephatt, W. Shaffir, & S.W. Kleinknecht (Eds.), Ethnographies revisited: Constructing theory in the field (pp. 121-133). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203876503 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2009). Analyzing narrative reality. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452234854 

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (2008). Interpretive practice and social action. In Y. Lincoln & E. Guba (Eds.), Strategies of qualitative inquiry (pp. 173–202). Sage.

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (2008). Constructionist impulses in ethnographic fieldwork. In J.A. Holstein & J.F. Gubrium. Handbook of constructionist research (pp. 373-396). Guilford.

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2008). Narrative ethnography. In S.N. Hesse-Biber & P. Leavy (Eds.), Handbook of emergent methods (pp. 241-264). Guilford Publications.

Gubrium, J.F. (2007). Urban ethnography of the 1920s working girl. Gender, Work & Organizations, 14(3), 232-258. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00341.x 

Gubrium, J.F. (2005). Introduction: Narrative environments and social problems. Social Problems,  52(4), 525-528. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2005.52.4.525 

Faircloth, C., Boylstein, C., Rittman, M., Young, M.E., & Gubrium, J. (2004). Sudden illness and biographical flow in narratives of stroke recovery. Sociology of Health & Illness, 26(2), 242-261. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2004.00388.x 

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (2004). Context: Working it up, down, and across. In C. Seale, G. Gobo, J.F. Gubrium, & D. Silverman (Eds.), Qualitative research practice (pp. 297-311). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608191 

Rittman, M., Faircloth, C., Boylstein, C., Gubrium, J.F., Williams, C., Van Puymbroeck, M., & Ellis, C. (2004). The experience of time in the transition from hospital to home following stroke. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 41(3A), 259-68. https://doi.org/10.1682/jrrd.2003.06.0099 

Seale, C., Gobo, G., Gubrium, J. F., & Silverman, D. (2004). Introduction: inside qualitative research. In Seale, C., Gobo, G., Gubrium, J.F., Silverman, D. (Eds.), Qualitative research practice (pp. 1–12). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608191 

Seale, C., & Gobo, G., & Gubrium, J.F. (2004). Quality and credibility. In C. Seale, G. Gobo., J.F. Gubrium, & D. Silverman (Eds.), Qualitative Research Practice (pp. 377-462). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781848608191 

Gubrium, J.F. (2003). What is a good story? Help for caregivers of people with dementia. Generations, 27(3), 21-24. https://www.jstor.org/stable/e48510520 

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (Eds.) (2003). Inside interviewing: New lenses, new concerns. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984492 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2003). Postmodern interviewing. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412985437 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2001). From the individual interview to the interview society. In J.F. Gubrium & J.A. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of interview research (pp. 2-32). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412973588 

Gubrium, J.F. & Holstein, J.A. (1999). At the border of narrative and ethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 28(5), 561-573. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124199129023550

Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (1998). Narrative practice and the coherence of personal stories. The Sociological Quarterly, 39(1), 163–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1998.tb02354.x 

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (1997). The new language of qualitative method. New York: Oxford University Press

Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (1995). The active interview (Vol. 37). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412986120 

Gubrium, J.F. (1993). For a cautious naturalism. In J.A. Holstein & G. Miller (Eds.), Reconsidering social constructionism (pp. 89-102). Aldine de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315128153 

Gubrium, F. (1988). Analyzing field reality. Sage.

Gubrium, J.F., Buckholdt, D.R., & Lynott, R. (1982). Considerations on a theory of descriptive activity. Mid-American Review of Sociology, 7(1), 17-35. https://doi.org/10.17161/STR.1808.4908

Selves, Troubles, and Social Problems

Gubrium, J.F. (2016). From the iron cage to everyday life. In J.F., Gubrium, T.A., Andreassen, & Andreassen, P.K. Andreassen (Eds.). Reimagining the human service relationship. Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/gubr17152

Gubrium, J.F. & Järvinen, M. (2014). Troubles, problems, and clientization. In J.F. Gubrium and M. Järvinen (Eds.), Turning troubles into problems: Clientization in human services (pp. 1-14). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203798010

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (2009). The everyday work and auspices of authenticity. In P. Vannini & P. Williams (Eds.), Authenticity in culture, self, and society (pp. 121-138). Ashgate. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315261973

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (Eds.). (2003). Inner lives and social Worlds: Readings in social psychology. Oxford University Press.

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (Eds.) (2001). Institutional selves: Troubled identities in a postmodern world. Oxford University Press.

Gubrium J.F. & Holstein, J.A. (2000). The self we live by: Narrative identity in a postmodern world. Oxford University Press.

Holstein, J.A., & Gubrium, J.F. (2000). The self in a world of going concerns. Symbolic Interaction, 23(2), 95-115. https://doi.org/10.1525/si.2000.23.2.95

Gubrium, J.F., & Holstein, J.A. (1995). Individual agency, the ordinary, and postmodern life. The Sociological Quarterly, 36(3), 555-570. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1995.tb00453.x

Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (1994). Grounding the postmodern self. The Sociological Quarterly, 35(4), 685–703. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1994.tb00423.x

Gubrium, J.F., Buckholdt, D.R., & Lynott, R.J. (1989). The descriptive tyranny of forms. In J.A. Holstein & G. Miller (Eds.), Perspectives on social problems (pg. 195-214). JAI Press.

Buckholdt, D.R. & Gubrium, J.F. (1983). Practicing accountability in human service institutions. Urban Life, 12(3), 249-268. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098303983012003002

Buckholdt, D. R., & Gubrium, J. F. (1980). The underlife of behavior modification. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 50(2), 279–290. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1980.tb03290.x

Buckholdt, D.R., & Gubrium, J.F. (1979). Doing staffing. Human Organization, 38(3), 255-264. https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.38.3.h6g071j5066m4hkn

Gubrium, J.F., & Buckholdt, D.R. (1979). Production of hard data in human service institutions. Pacific Sociological Review, 22(1), 115-136. https://doi.org/10.2307/138889

Gubrium, J.F. (1975). Death worlds in a nursing home. Urban Life, 4(3), 317-338. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124167500400305