This paper concerns the ways in which futures are enacted, and thus mobilized, by publics, participants and practitioners, and especially by social scientists. In particular, the paper is interested ...in the assortment of futures within which we are seemingly embroiled, and how we analytically deal with the proliferation of futures. This is approached through the dramatization of futures as ‘Big’ or ‘Little’ in which change is more or less widespread and far-reaching. The aim is to chart some of the ways in which Big Futures are analytically or rhetorically transformed into Little and vice versa, and thus to throw into relief the mutability of futures per se. This discussion is developed by drawing on a particular area of social scientific inquiry, namely the ‘public understanding of science’ (PUS) which also includes the field of ‘public engagement with science and technology’ (PEST). The role for Big Futures (indexed by ‘controversiality’) in this field, and the Big Future claims made by PUS/PEST practitioners are contrasted to the Little Futures of everyday life. With the aid of a ‘speculative’ sensibility, Little Futures are then shown to be potential sources of Big Futures. The paper ends with a preliminary attempt to theorize the complex interactions of Big and Little Futures through Isabelle Stengers’ (2010) notion of an ‘ecology of practices’.
In sociology, rituals are considered a social practice with powerful effects, and a prerequisite for functioning and sustainment of society itself. It was Durkheim who first identified the need for ...repeated ritual encounters among humans, in the sense of providing recurrent and cohesive emotions of joy, ecstasy, comfort, shame, pride, etc. However, the theory of rituals which took human emotions into account was proposed much later. This paper will argue for the social importance of everyday, mundane, or leisure rituals such as sports matches, music concerts, and routine conversations, gossip, or meetings over a drink or coffee, as ritual interactions strongly mediated by social emotions. These leisure interaction rituals create important personal experiences and meaningful personal histories, while having significant effects for the society as a whole. The paper claims that societies are not being "held together" by some abstract entity, such as social system or culture, but only through the pockets of micro-solidarity occurring when individuals ritually meet in emotionally charged interactions. It is the social interaction in leisure that generates essential social emotions, social ties, and group solidarity, thus representing the actual glue that holds society together.
The article describes the methodological features of conversation analysis (CA) and a special understanding of sociology which is embedded in its program and reflected in the categories of ...observational science, radical empiricism, micro-interactions and “talk-in-interaction”. The interpretation of the concept of social order incorporated in the program of conversation analysis is presented. “Turn-taking” concept and “one speaker at a time” principle are discussed. They are shown to be crucial for the (re-)production of the local structure of a conversation. Finally, the article includes the overview of transcript preparation and analysis procedures developed in CA research.
En människa bland andra? Iversen, Clara; Redmalm, David; Flinkfeldt, Marie ...
Sociologisk forskning,
2021, Volume:
58, Issue:
1-2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
A person among others? Older people’s understandings of their everyday life during the Covid-19 crisis
This article examines how older people make sense of their situation in calls to a helpline a ...few months into the Covid-19 pandemic. By drawing on the sociology of everyday life to analyse callers’ various understandings of the crisis, the article nuances current knowledge about older people’s situation. The thematic analysis shows that the callers make sense of the crisis linked to social relations on a personal, anonymous, and abstract level. The callers’ responses to challenges to their everyday routines – adjustment or critical evaluation – are connected to different approaches to trust: basic trust in a shared social reality with someone or regulating trust in a set of norms independent from that other. Whereas the calls demonstrate very few positive adjustments in personal relations, they show that anonymous and abstract relations serve as important resources for both maintaining and re-evaluating everyday life during a crisis. Although older people’s lack of secure personal relations during the pandemic points to vulnerability, their resourcefulness is apparent in their active engagement in important anonymous and abstract relations.
The purpose of the article is to critically address the theories, which state that modern societies are not capable of integration based on universally shared norms. The thesis about the ...„disappearance of common meanings” creates an image of society as an aggregate of individuals or confl icted groups. To counter-balance such visions, the author proposes the concept of middle-range norms. It is argued that such norms can connect different social actors and be widely recognized. Shared normalcy can be negotiated in a bottom-up manner and not necessarily imposed in the top-down fashion by various forms of social power. The author finds examples of such norms in everyday life. They include the norm of not wasting food, the rule of hospitality, respect for mourning, care for children and concern with health.
This delightful, thought-provoking book tackles head-on the assumption that laughter and humour are necessarily good in themselves. The author proposes a social theory that places humour central to ...social life. Billig argues that all cultures use ridicule as a disciplinary means to uphold norms of conduct and conventions of meaning.
A person among others? Iversen, Clara; Redmalm, David; Flinkfeldt, Marie ...
Sociologisk forskning,
2021, Volume:
58, Issue:
1-2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This article examines how older people make sense of their situation in calls to a helpline a few months into the Covid-19 pandemic.By drawing on the sociology of everyday life to analyse callers' ...various understandings of the crisis, the article nuances current knowledge about older people's situation.The thematic analysis shows that the callers make sense of the crisis linked to social relations on a personal, anonymous, and abstract level. The callers' responses to challenges to their everyday routines - adjustment or critical evaluation - are connected to different approaches to trust: basic trust in a shared social reality with someone or regulating trust in a set of norms independent from that other. Whereas the calls demonstrate very few positive adjustments in personal relations, they show that anonymous and abstract relations serve as important resources for both maintaining and re-evaluating everyday life during a crisis.Although older people's lack of secure personal relations during the pandemic points to vulnerability, their resourcefulness is apparent in their active engagement in important anonymous and abstract relations.
Risk and Everyday Life Tulloch, John; Lupton, Deborah
2003, 2003-07-23, 2003-07-24, 20030101
eBook
This book examines how people respond to, experience and think about risk. The authors stress the need to take into account the cultural dimensions of risk and risk-taking and consider the influence ...that gender, social class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, occupation, geographical location and nationality have on our perceptions of risk.
This study suggests the importance of focusing on lost objects after disasters and gauging the emotional registers and impacts of object loss to best understand and assist in wildfire victims' ...recovery process. Because objects and materiality are a focus of research in the sociology of culture and the sociology of emotions, I assess these sub-field of interest in object and emotion, along with surveying the various fields dealing with disasters and their aftermaths. Participants were from a small, semi-rural community in the central hill country of Texas. A participant-observer design allowed for working alongside fire survivors. Grounded theory and situational analysis frameworks were used to analyze 54 survivors' narratives related to the importance of everyday household objects in their recovery– things resurrected from the wildfire. The findings suggest that it would be wise to ponder material objects in situated context—in a new manner and with new respect.
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