Amateurs: On the Margin Between Work and Leisure

By examining three distinct amateur communities—thespians, archeologists, and baseball players—Stebbins intends to show the commonalities of the amateur perspective. He argues that amateurs can be defined structurally as part of a professional- amateur-public system of relationships. By this he means that within social worlds there exist types of social actors. The professional's livelihood is based upon the competent performance of some set of nonstandardized tasks for which a critical audience exists (either present for the performance, or judging the finished product). This audience comprises the public—in baseball, the fans; in the theater, the audience; and in archeology, a collegial network. Amateurs are neither professional nor public, but a part of both. They may be the professional's most sensitive and insightful judge not only because of their expertise in the area but because they also strive for a public.