Why Everyday Life Matters: Class, Community and Making Life Livable

This article argues that studying everyday life is valuable because it makes sociologists attend to the routine and temporal aspects of social life. The 'everyday' brings the seasons of society into view. It also brings to the fore how liveable lives are made in the midst of the social dam...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology (Oxford) Vol. 49; no. 5; pp. 820 - 836
Main Author: Back, Les
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.10.2015
Cambridge University Press
Subjects:
Christmas
Community life
Everyday life
Social classes
Social life & customs
Sociology
Studies
Time
Working class
Croydon Borough-London England
United Kingdom > UK
England
Christmas
community
class
everyday life
ISSN:0038-0385, 1469-8684
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This article argues that studying everyday life is valuable because it makes sociologists attend to the routine and temporal aspects of social life. The 'everyday' brings the seasons of society into view. It also brings to the fore how liveable lives are made in the midst of the social damage produced by widening class divisions. Drawing lessons from Erving Goffman's sociology, the article argues that attending to everyday life necessitates developing an eye for detail and attentiveness to the seemingly unimportant. It is also argued that central to the study of everyday life is the relationship between history, culture, class and biography. These arguments are illustrated through a discussion of a working-class estate in Croydon, south London where residents light up their home at Christmas in 'chromatic surplus'.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 14
ISSN:0038-0385
1469-8684
DOI:10.1177/0038038515589292