ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the unremarkable sphere of negative phenomena (nonevents, unuttered words, nowhere places, untaken actions) that constitute the background of personal biographies. Structures of identity and existential trajectories are normally based on “somethingness,” elements that people have positively done, known, had, or become, whereas a series of nonphenomena are never directly experienced and yet influence one’s position and social life. Drawing on her sociology of nothing, the author argues that “doing nothing” is a full-fledged social act, relationally negotiated between self and others. Using qualitative data from 28 interviews, this chapter shows how nothing actually happens in personal lives, thus underlining dynamics of invisibility, silence, emptiness, and inactivity in life stories. The main point of the chapter is that negative experiences, however, seemingly irrelevant, turn out to be particularly meaningful in shaping social identity.
