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Culture Builders
"Explains brilliantly the structures and processes of middle-class culture in historical perspective."--Robert Nye, Rutgers University " This] illuminating study of the Swedish middle class around the turn of the century . . . is one welcome sign that bourgeois, too, are once again recognized as parts of society worth studying . . . to be understood rather than to be savaged. Culture Builders is a welcome sign of yet another development: the ease with which historical studies may be integrated with neighboring disciplines."--Journal of Modern History "The authors take an impressively broad intellectual perspective. . . . The everyday routines of bourgeoisie, peasantry, and working class are ...
On Holiday
Beginning his cultural journey among some 18th-century pioneers of tourism, Lofgren takes us on a tour of the Western holiday world and shows how two centuries of "learning to be a tourist" have shaped our own ways of vacationing. We see how fashions in destinations have changed through the years, with popular images (written, drawn, painted, and later photographed) teaching the tourist what to look for and how to experience it.
The Secret World of Doing Nothing
In this insightful reflection on 'doing nothing', the authors take us on a tour of what is happening when, to all appearances, absolutely nothing is happening. The book leads us to rethink the ordinary and find meaning in today's hypermodern reality.
Disturbing the Nest
Disturbing the Nest assesses the future of the family as an institution through an historical and comparative analysis of the nature, causes, and social implications of family change in advanced western societies such as the United States, New Zealand, and Switzerland by focusing on the one society in which family decline is found to be the greatest, Sweden. The founding of the modern Swedish welfare state was based in large part on the belief that it was necessary for the state to intervene in society in order to improve the situation of the family. Of great concern was the low birthrate, which was seen as a threat to the very survival of Swedes as a national population group. The Social De...
Force of Habit
This work examines customs and habits such as crayfish parties, Christmas celebrations, and graduation rituals. The focus is not on the traditions as such, instead they provide a starting point for analyses of how the experiences of everyday life are manifested in a visible cultural garb. The text shows how many rituals serve to release people from the bonds of tradition, usually by creating a special cultural arena. Yet it also examines the ways in which habits and customs tacitly coerce thoughts, sometimes drawing attention to fundamental social and moral values but just as often acting as impediments to reflection. The contributors try to see how some features of everyday cultural identity can be easily replaced, while others may persist tenaciously.
The Secret World of Doing Nothing
In this insightful and pathbreaking reflection on “doing nothing,” Billy Ehn and Orvar Löfgren take us on a fascinating tour of what is happening when, to all appearances, absolutely nothing is happening. Sifting through a wide range of examples drawn from literature, published ethnographies, and firsthand research, they probe the unobserved moments in our daily lives—waiting for a bus, daydreaming by the window, performing a routine task—and illuminate these “empty” times as full of significance. Creative, insightful, and profound, The Secret World of Doing Nothing leads us to rethink the ordinary and find meaning in today’s hypermodern reality.
Managing Overflow in Affluent Societies
“It is simply too much” is a common complaint of the modern age. This book looks at how people and institutions deal with overflow - of information, consumption or choices. The essays explore the ways in which notions of overflow – framed in terms of excess and abundance or their implicit opposites, scarcity and dearth – crop up in a number of contexts such as sociological and economic theory, management consulting, consumer studies, and the politics of everyday life. Chapters range from studies of overload at home, at work or in the world of cyber information; strategies of coping with overflow in institutions such as news agencies; and historical comparisons. When, where, how and for whom is overflow a problem or a blessing?
Everyday Culture in Europe
This book discusses the history and contemporary practice of studying cultures 'at home', by examining Europe's regional or 'small' ethnologies of the past, present and future. With the rise of nationalism and independence in Europe, ethnologies have often played a major role in the nation-building process. The contributors to this book offer case studies of ethnologies as methodologies, showing how they can address key questions concerning everyday life in Europe. They also explore issues of European integration and the transnational dimension of culture in Europe today, and examine how regional ethnologies can play a crucial part in forming a wider 'European ethnology' as local participants have experience of combining identities within larger regions or nations.
Sensitive Objects
Some objects seem especially personal and important to us - be it a quickly packed suitcase, an inherited vase, or a photograph. In Sensitive Objects the authors discuss when, how, and why particular objects appear as 'sensitive'. They do so by analyzing the objects' affective charging in the context of historically embedded practices. Sensitive Objects is a contribution to the upcoming field of 'affect research' that has so far been dominated by psychology and cultural studies, and the authors examine the potential for epistemic gain by connecting the studies of affect with the studies of material culture. The contributors, predominantly ethnologists and anthropologists, use fieldwork to examine how people project affects onto material objects and explore how objects embody or trigger affects and produce affective atmospheres.
Time, Consumption and Everyday Life
Has material civilization spun out of control, becoming too fast for our own well-being and that of the planet? This book confronts these anxieties and examines the changing rhythms and temporal organization of everyday life. How do people handle hurriedness, burn-out and stress? Are slower forms of consumption viable? This volume brings together international experts from geography, sociology, history, anthropology and philosophy. In case studies covering the United States, Asia and Europe, contributors follow routines and rhythms, their emotional and political dynamics and show how they are anchored in material culture and everyday practice. Running themes of the book are questions of coordination and disruption; cycles and seasons; and the interplay between power and freedom, and between material and natural forces. The result is a volume that brings studies of practice, temporality and material culture together to open up a new intellectual agenda.
