ASOK15219U Mundane Sociality

Some sociologists will claim that different groups of citizens can be said to display a certain type of lifestyle which they have in common and which can be described on the basis of patterns of e.g. tastes, consumption activities and social background. Other sociologists will claim that different social ways of enacting ordinary practices can be said to be accomplishments of handling everyday life conditions. Both kinds of sociological claims make up each their analytical lens on the mundane sociality. The perspectives of lifestyle and everyday life are also used in contemporary sociological theories such as Bourdieu’s homology thesis and contemporary practice theories. Current sociological research use the concepts of lifestyle and everyday life in empirical studies of e.g. family life, social inequality, and citizens’ relations to politicised issues such as environment and health. At the course, the participants will gain the ability to relate lifestyle and everyday life discussions to the parts of cultural sociology that analyse the more mundane socio-cultural relations, interactions and conditions. The participants will achieve an overview of the different conceptual discussions about lifestyle and everyday life (e.g. classic and contemporary), and become able to connect concepts of lifestyle and everyday life with specific empirical areas of sociological research (e.g. family life and environmental issues). Alongside with this, participants will practice their skills at theorising at applied and middle-range level, and make a theoretically and empirically informed analysis of a sociological example of mundane sociality.