In similar vein to Richard Florida’s influential, but problematic The Rise of the Creative Class, journalist Ethan Watters’ work of pop sociology Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment looks interesting. By the sounds of it, 2 parts Maffesoli and 3 parts Copeland. Here’s the Publishers’ Weekly blurb:

Journalist Watters parlays his 2001 New York Times Magazine think piece and subsequent Good Morning America appearance into a debut book, a sociological examination of the pleasures of a segment of his generation-the “yet to be marrieds” ages 25 to 39. They’re the ones who live in bohemian garrets yet feel affluent because their baby boomer parents will probably leave them their money. They host great New Year’s Eve parties and travel en masse to the New Orleans Jazz Festival. They’re the “Burning Man” generation, drawn like lemmings to the annual desert art festival. Demographers call them “never-marrieds” and say they’re one of the fastest-growing groups in America. Most tellingly, in Watters’s view, the habit of establishing “urban tribes”-rotating networks of friends and acquaintances-covers all functions formerly served by the traditional family, thus eliminating the need for marriage and intimacy […].