Friendship in Higher Education: Imagined, Embodied, Negotiated

Abstract

Ashley lives with her mother and older sister (20 years old) in a traditional terraced house in the centre of Millthorne. It is a July morning in 2006 when Ashley and I meet for her first interview and we take shade in the cool sitting room at the front of the house. Nobody else is at home; both her mother and sister are out at work. Ashley’s parents separated when she was very young and although she mentions her father I get the sense that he is a peripheral character in her life. As she reflects on the rhythms of everyday life at home she portrays an image of three women living together but very separately: ‘We’re like ships in the night most of the time’ (Interview 1).