Sociability and distinction: An ethnographic study of a French nursing home ☆ Baptiste Brossard ⁎ Department of Sociology, University of Montréal, Pavillon Lionel Groulx, 3150, rue Jean Brillant, Montréal, QC H3T 1N8, Canada article info abstract Article history: Received 30 September 2015 Received in revised form 11 December 2015 Accepted 13 February 2016 Available online xxxx How do residents' previous social positions influence the ways in which they deal with social life in nursing home? Based on observations and interviews in a private nursing home in France, this article describes daily life in the facility, the disability-based distinctions observed among residents, the strategies they use to “find their place,” and the references they make about their former social position in collective encounters. It shows that sociability in nursing homes is structured by the intertwining of “levels of disability” among residents, the social composition of the institution and its local surroundings, and the relative value attributed to each type of capital (in the sense of Bourdieu) in this context. The author proposes some assumptions that aim to generalize these specific findings. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Nursing homes Sociability Ethnography Nursing home Ethnography Sociability Nursing home placement implies a biographic disruption between residents' previous lives, with social positions related to income, heritage, profession, and civil status, and their current condition, which is based in great part on diminishing autonomy and need for sustained care. Even if their previous social positions may dramatically influence the facility they are placed in, from the moment they are institutionalized, residents live in a social microcosm where they are supposed to be treated in the same way, cared for by the same professionals, and supported by the same infrastructure. Variations in this treatment depend on residents' health and specific disabilities. Thus, vestiges of their former lives are minimal, including clothing, some furnishings, and some money to purchase additional food, personal items, and specific services. Social stratification as it occurs in “ordinary” society tends to be replaced by the internal hierarchies of inmates and professionals, as has long been established by ethnographers (Gubrium, 1997). What social hierarchies take place in an institution's daily life? How do residents distinguish themselves from each other? While nursing homes explicitly strive to put residents into a condition of formal equality, lifetimes of prior socializa- tion cannot disappear overnight. How do residents' previous social positions influence the ways in which they deal with this new space of sociability? Based on fieldwork conducted in a French nursing home, this article offers an ethnographic exploration of these questions. It sheds light on the structuring of inner sociability and on how residents' former “capitals,” in the Bourdieusian sense, influence this sociability. First, I will ground my study in research on sociability in nursing homes and on social inequalities in aging, drawing on Bourdieu's conceptualization of social positioning and Goffman's microsociology. Second, I will present my methodology. Third, the analysis will aim at describing daily life in the studied nursing home through the disability-based distinctions observed among Journal of Aging Studies 37 (2016) 20–28 ☆ I wish to thank my 2014–2015 writing group in Montreal—Pierre Minn, Gabriel Girard, Stephanie Alexander, Tarik Benmarhnia, and Sara Torres Ospina. A short version of this article has also been presented at the 2015 American Anthropological Association meeting in Denver, which gave rise to fruitful discussions, especially with William Vega, Elizabeth Lewis, and Devva Kasnitz. At last, the English proofreading has been completed by Pierre Minn and Emilee Gilpin, whom I want to thank, as well as the reviewers of the Journal of Aging Studies. ⁎ Tel.: +1 514 235 8001. E-mail address: baptiste.brossard@hotmail.fr. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2016.02.001 0890-4065/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Aging Studies journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jaging