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 part of civil society. Both the concept of lifestyle and the concept of everyday life go back to classic sociological theory such as Weber and Simmel. Lifestyle and everyday life are also used in contemporary sociological theories such as Bourdieu and De Certau, and as concepts they are related to a number of other (sometimes overlapping) sociological categories about the mundane such as neo-tribes and symbolic interaction. 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 other parts of cultural sociology (e.g. symbolic universes and “dark” sides of socio-cultural life). 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 make a theoretically and empirically informed analysis of as issue related to lifestyle or everyday life.