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What is Everyday Life? Sociology and Everyday Life (week 2)

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Notes on week 2 of Sociology and Everyday Life SOC020C135 module. Topics discussed in this session: Why did everyday life sociology emerge? Roots of everyday life sociology, How do we study everyday life? Searching for rules, rule-breaking, The university ‘space’ – Understanding the universit...

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  • April 5, 2021
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  • 2020/2021
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  • Week 2 – what is everyday life?
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Module: Sociology and Everyday Life


Week 2 – What is Everyday Life?


Why study everyday life
 Suzie Scott makes an important point

 The structural things are not separate to everyday life

 It’s through the everyday life that we can understand the bigger issues


The Sociological Imagination
C. Wright-Mills  the realisation that our ‘private troubles’ are linked to ‘public
issues’


Why did everyday life sociology emerge?
 Bennet & Watson (2002) questions why do we have this fascination with
everyday life

 A shift away from those at the top of the social order

 That we want to know what ordinary people are doing

 We live in a world characterised by surveillance  it’s difficult now to find
somewhere in the public where we are not observed

 The personal has increasingly become the political  personal decisions that we
make we now understand more than ever that it is important  e.g. personal
decisions that impacts more widely such as where you shop


Roots of everyday life sociology
 Marxism – a compensation for the hardships that people experienced in their
everyday life. It was a distraction for people. It prevented people from finding a
revolutionary consciousness.

 Things like going for shopping, going to the pub, meeting friends were just a
distraction.

 Certeau (1984)  small acts of defiance like finding a shortcut made life bearable


How do we study everyday life?

,  To apply the methods that are appropriate to everyday sociology

 To apply an ethnographic approach  observing and talking to people and
understanding from their perspectives

 We have to make the familiar strange – to ask the dumb and really obvious
questions e.g. why do we have cake on someone’s birthday?

 Put aside the idea of what is normal


Searching for rules
 What are the rules that define how people behave?

 Example: not drinking alcohol in public places

 Ritualistic – how do we behave during meal time?

 The tension between structure and agency


Rule breaking
For functionalists, rule breaking is positive.


What this means for your work?
 Shopping – there are many forms of shopping

 Try not to be judgemental


The university ‘space’ – Understanding the university as a site of everyday life
Thinking about the library, what kind of activities take place there?
 Studying and reading
 Eat and drinking
 Meeting place
 A focal point for the university
 Classes going on in there

How would you describe the location? For example, is it noisy or quiet? Is it
industrious or relaxed?
 Top floor is really quiet
 Ground floor is much more relaxed

In sociology we often describe how locations or activities are bounded from others.
How is the location divided/separated from other locations or activities? For example,

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