Showing papers in "Sociology in 2015"
TL;DR: The authors argue that retro-sexist ‘laddish’ forms of masculine competitiveness and misogyny have been reshaped by neoliberal rationalities to become modes of consumerist sexualised audit, and suggest that neoliberal frameworks scaffold an individualistic and adversarial culture among young people that interacts with perceived threats to men's privilege and intensifies attempts to put women in their place through misogyny and sexual harassment.
Abstract: This paper links HE neoliberalisation and ‘lad cultures’, drawing on interviews and focus groups with women students. We argue that retro-sexist ‘laddish’ forms of masculine competitiveness and misogyny have been reshaped by neoliberal rationalities to become modes of consumerist sexualised audit. We also suggest that neoliberal frameworks scaffold an individualistic and adversarial culture among young people that interacts with perceived threats to men’s privilege and intensifies attempts to put women in their place through misogyny and sexual harassment. Furthermore, ‘lad cultures’, sexism and sexual harassment in higher education may be invisibilised by institutions to preserve marketability in a neoliberal context. In response, we ask if we might foster dialogue and partnership between feminist and anti-marketisation politics.
111 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that studying everyday life is valuable because it makes sociologists attend to the routine and temporal aspects of social life, which brings the seasons of society into view and brings to the fore how liveable lives are made in the midst of the social damage produced by widening class divisions.
Abstract: 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’.
103 citations
TL;DR: McDonnell et al. as discussed by the authors examined how these young men developed and exhibited their inclusive masculinities and attitudes, which they postulate are a reflection of dominant youth culture, using Anderson's Inclusive Masculinity Theory.
Abstract: On the world’s most utilised video-sharing social n
etworking site, YouTube, Charlie
McDonnell (
Charlieissocoollike
), Dan Howell (
Danisnotonfire
), and Jack and Finn Harries
(
JacksGap
) are Britain’s most popular video-bloggers (vlogge
rs). With more than two million
regular subscribers to each of their channels, alon
g with millions of casual viewers, they
represent a new form of authentic online celebrity.
These young men, whose YouTube
careers began as teenagers, do not espouse a tradit
ional form of masculinity; they are not
sporty, macho, or even expressly concerned with bei
ng perceived as heterosexual. Instead,
they present a softer masculinity, eschewing the ho
mophobia, misogyny, and aggression
attributed to boys of previous generations. These b
ehaviours are theorised using Anderson’s
Inclusive Masculinity Theory. Drawing on analysis o
f 115 video-blogs (vlogs), along with an
in-depth interview with Charlie McDonnell, this art
icle examines how these young men
developed and exhibit their inclusive masculinities
and attitudes, which we postulate are a
reflection of dominant youth culture.
Keywords: authenticity, celebrity, inclusive mascul
inity, popularity, vlogging, YouTube
86 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors expand on the quotidian perspectives of "ordinary cities" and "everyday resistance" and explore the migrant urbanisms that emerge out of movement, mixing and exchange.
Abstract: This article expands on the quotidian perspectives of ‘ordinary cities’ and ‘everyday resistance’ and explores the migrant urbanisms that emerge out of movement, mixing and exchange. The article ar...
84 citations
TL;DR: The sociologies of everyday life was chosen as the theme for the 2015 Special Issue of Sociology as mentioned in this paper, with the focus on social relations, experiences, and practices of the everyday.
Abstract: Welcome to the 2015 Special Issue of Sociology. It is the journal’s policy that each editorial team has the opportunity to guest edit a Special Issue of Sociology during their editorial term. As a part of this editorial treat, the theme of the Special Issue is completely open and in the gift of the editors. Taking time to explain why we selected and settled on the sociologies of everyday life as the theme for our Special Issue provides a way for us to begin this Introduction. In many ways, it is difficult to overstate the significance of the everyday because it is, as Sarah Pink (2012: 143) observes, ‘at the centre of human existence, the essence of who we are and our location in the world’. The study of everyday life is a well-established tradition within sociology and interest and thinking about the quotidian continues to grow, with these engagements becoming increasingly interdisciplinary across the social sciences and beyond. In his worry about the drift of sociology into more generic social science, John Holmwood (2010) argues that the discipline has been particularly effective in working as an ‘exporter’ of concepts and methods (as well as personnel). With this ‘open borders’ character of sociology as a discipline in mind (see also Meer and Nayak 2013; Urry 2000), we saw our Special Issue as a timely moment for taking sociological stock. This means that the Special Issue can be thought of as both a reflective moment – where has sociology been and arrived at in its attempts to think through the everyday? – and as an anticipative moment – what are the new logics, foci, approaches, uses, limits for sociologies of the everyday? Everyday life-approaches attempt to capture and recognize the mundane, the routines in (and of) social relations and practices. In doing so, they not only give importance to the ordinary, and take the ordinary seriously as a category of analysis, but they also evidence how everyday life social relations, experiences and practices are always
74 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that an agonistic model, rather than a communitarian one, best describes the online interactions of digital inhabitants and applies Bourdieu's distinctive theoretical framework to online interactions to demonstrate the fecundity of the sociological perspective when applied to contemporary online interactions.
Abstract: While there has been much discussion in recent decades on the nature of social capital and its importance in online interactions, it is my contention that these discussions have been dominated by the American Communitarian tradition. In this article, I begin with an overview of American Communitarianism to identify the key elements therein that are found in contemporary theories of social capital. Following this, I expose some of the weaknesses of this tradition and apply Bourdieu’s distinctive theoretical framework to online interactions to demonstrate the fecundity of Bourdieu’s sociological perspective when applied to contemporary online interactions. To do this, I examine interactions online that involve ‘internet memes’, as digital inhabitants themselves colloquially define them. It is my contention that an agonistic model, rather than a communitarian one, best describes the online interactions of digital inhabitants.
69 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored middle class mothers' narratives on their daily routines of preparing lunchboxes for their children, and found that mothers feel on display through the contents of their children's lunchboxes through semi-structured, photo elicitation interviews and a focus group discussion.
Abstract: This article explores middle class mothers’ narratives on their daily routines of preparing lunchboxes for their children. In this study lunchboxes are understood as an artefact linking together discourses and practices of doing and displaying mothering, media and government discourses of feeding children and broader issues of care and surveillance in private and public settings. Drawing on semi-structured, photo elicitation interviews and a focus group discussion, this article illuminates how mothers feel on display through the contents of their children’s lunchboxes.
67 citations
TL;DR: An ethnographic study examines how participatory spaces and citizenship are co-constituted in participatory healthcare improvement efforts, and proposes a theoretical framework for participatory citizenship in which acts of citizenship in healthcare are understood in terms of the spaces they are in.
Abstract: This ethnographic study examines how participatory spaces and citizenship are co-constituted in participatory healthcare improvement efforts. We propose a theoretical framework for participatory citizenship in which acts of citizenship in healthcare are understood in terms of the spaces they are in. Participatory spaces consist of material, temporal and social dimensions that constrain citizens' actions. Participants draw on external resources to try to make participatory spaces more productive and collaborative, to connect and expand them. We identify three classes of tactics they use to do this: 'plotting', 'transient combination' and 'interconnecting'. All tactics help participants assemble to a greater or lesser extent a less fragmented participatory landscape with more potential for positive impact on healthcare. Participants' acts of citizenship both shape and are shaped by participatory spaces. To understand participatory citizenship, we should take spatiality into account, and track the ongoing spatial negotiations and productions through which people can improve healthcare.
67 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the critical reception of the arguments made about social class in Savage et al. (2013) is justified by the need to disentangle different strands of debate so as not to conflate them.
Abstract: This article responds to the critical reception of the arguments made about social class in Savage et al. (2013). It emphasises the need to disentangle different strands of debate so as not to conf...
63 citations
TL;DR: The emergence of Human-Animal Studies (HAS) is part of the turn towards animals in modern industrialised societies has triggered new lines of scholarly enquiry as discussed by the authors, and the emergence of human-animal studies has triggered a change in attitudes towards animals.
Abstract: Changing attitudes towards animals in modern industrialised societies has triggered new lines of scholarly enquiry. The emergence of Human-Animal Studies (HAS) is part of the turn towards animals w...
62 citations
TL;DR: Using a Bourdieusian lens, this paper examined the persistence of everyday sexism and gender inequality in male-dominated professions and found that women experience gendered treatment in everyday interactions with peers.
Abstract: The under-representation of women in the UK engineering and construction sectors seems resolute. Using a Bourdieusian lens, this article examines the persistence of everyday sexism and gender inequality in male-dominated professions. Bringing together findings from three research projects with engineering and construction industry students and professionals, we find that women experience gendered treatment in everyday interactions with peers. Patterns of(mis)recognition and resistance are complex, with some women expressing views which reproduce and naturalise gender inequality. In contrast, other women recognise and resist such essentialism through a range of actions including gender equity campaigning. Through a Bourdieusian analysis of the everyday, this article calls into question existing policy recommendations that argue women have different skills that can be brought to the sector. Such recommendations reinforce the gendered nature of the engineering and construction sectors’ habitus and fail to re...
TL;DR: The article investigates what employers consider the desirable characteristics of workers: trust, kinship, gender, social networks, language compatibility and the needs of the business intersect with racialised notions of workers’ strengths and characteristics.
Abstract: This article draws on data from qualitative interviews with ethnic enclave and ethnic economy business entrepreneurs from Chinese, Bangladeshi and Turkish-speaking communities in London. Routes into business and worker recruitment practices are explored, demonstrating the centrality of social capital in the form of family and other social networks within these processes. The article investigates what employers consider the desirable characteristics of workers: trust, kinship, gender, social networks, language compatibility and the needs of the business intersect with racialised notions of workers’ strengths and characteristics. Finally, we consider changing practices in relation to the employment of undocumented migrants, in the context of an increasingly punitive legislative regime. The complex and variable impact of policy alongside the ways in which other obligations and positions outweigh the fear and risks of sanctions associated with non-compliance is revealed.
TL;DR: How post-feminism is domesticated in Russia through popular self-help literature aimed at a female audience is explored and it is demonstrated that the domestication of post- Feminism also involves the domesticated of neoliberal capitalism in Russia and how popular psychology, neoliberal capitalism and post- feminism are symbiotically related.
Abstract: In recent years, post-feminism has become an important element of popular media culture and the object of feminist cultural critique This article explores how post-feminism is domesticated in Russia through popular self-help literature aimed at a female audience Drawing on a close reading of self-help texts by three best-selling Russian authors, the article examines how post-feminism is made intelligible to the Russian audience and how it articulates with other symbolic frameworks It identifies labour as a key trope through which post-feminism is domesticated and argues that the texts invite women to invest time and energy in the labour of personality, the labour of femininity and the labour of sexuality in order to become ‘valuable subjects’ The article demonstrates that the domestication of post-feminism also involves the domestication of neoliberal capitalism in Russia, and highlights how popular psychology, neoliberal capitalism and post-feminism are symbiotically related
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make a sensible case for the place of humour as a methodology for the social sciences, and make a case for using humour in the context of social science research.
Abstract: Humour and laughter have been regarded as suitable topics for research in the social sciences, but as methodological principles to be adopted in carrying out and representing the findings of research they have been neglected. Indeed, those scholars who have made use of humour – wit, satire, jokes etc. – risk being regarded as trivial and marginalised from the mainstream. Yet, in literature the idea that comedy can tell us something important about the human condition is widely recognised. This neglect of the potential of humour and laughter represents a serious omission. The purpose of this article is to make a sensible case for the place of humour as a methodology for the social sciences.
TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which internationalism is addressed within the public face that schools present to prospective pupils, and the nature of any such messages that are conveyed, is explored.
Abstract: Analyses of UK higher education have provided compelling evidence of the way in which this sector has been affected by globalisation. There is now a large literature documenting the internationalisation of British universities, and the strategic and economic importance attached to attracting students from abroad. Within the schools sector, it has been argued that parents are increasingly concerned about the acquisition of valuable multicultural ‘global capital’. Nevertheless, we know little about whether ‘internationalism’ and/or the inculcation of ‘global capital’ is an explicit focus of UK schools. To start to redress this gap, this article draws on an analysis of websites, prospectuses and other publicly available documents to explore the extent to which internationalism is addressed within the public face that schools present to prospective pupils, and the nature of any such messages that are conveyed.
TL;DR: The Pink Agenda as discussed by the authors is a set of judicial, social and political instruments employed by both nation-states and international human rights institutions, such as the Council of Europe (CoE).
Abstract: This article introduces the ‘Pink Agenda’ as a set of judicial, social and political instruments employed by both nation-states and international human rights institutions, such as the Council of E...
TL;DR: The ‘moments approach’ that is proposed provides a lens through which to focus in on couples’ everyday experiences, to gain insight on processes, meanings and cross-cutting analytical themes whilst ensuring that feelings and emotionality remain firmly attached.
Abstract: Everyday moments and ordinary gestures create the texture of long-term couple relationships. In this article we demonstrate how, by refining our research tools and conceptual imagination, we can better understand these vibrant and visceral relationships. The ‘moments approach’ that we propose provides a lens through which to focus in on couples’ everyday experiences, to gain insight on processes, meanings and cross-cutting analytical themes whilst ensuring that feelings and emotionality remain firmly attached. Calling attention to everyday relationship practices, we draw on empirical research to illustrate and advance our conceptual and methodological argument. The Enduring Love? study included an online survey (n = 5445) and multi-sensory qualitative research with couples (n = 50) to interrogate how they experience, understand and sustain their long-term relationships.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the possibility that small acts of urban care, maintenance and cleaning might make for a good city, through a critical assessment of Nigel Thrift's recent writings on urban repair, drawing (but not reporting) on their own research with street cleaners and outreach workers tasked to look out for the rough sleeping homeless.
Abstract: This article considers the possibility that small acts of urban care, maintenance and cleaning might make for a good city. This might seem a slim possibility, given the vast sociology of hopelessness to which the contemporary city is home. But it can also be argued that a politics, and a sociology, of hope are best looked for not in big picture or utopian thinking but in the practical instances of everyday care and kindness that are as much a part of the urban everyday as anxiety, insecurity and damage. We explore this possibility through a critical assessment of Nigel Thrift’s recent writings on urban repair, drawing (but not reporting) on our own research with street cleaners and outreach workers tasked to look out for the rough sleeping homeless.
TL;DR: The authors explore the cultural-political tensions and ambiguities of urban ecology, by way of following how activists move and translate between "familiar" and "public" engagements in the green city.
Abstract: In this article, we explore the cultural-political tensions and ambiguities of urban ecology, by way of following how activists move and translate between ‘familiar’ and ‘public’ engagements in the green city. Empirically, we locate our exploration in and around Nordhavnen (The North Harbor), a large-scale sustainable urban development project in Copenhagen. Invoking Laurent Thevenot’s pragmatic sociology of ‘regimes of engagement’, we sketch a culturally sensitive approach to urban ecological activism, highlighting the critical moral capacities involved in building new forms of ‘commonality in the plural’ in the city. In particular, we stress the role assumed in such engagements by various image-making practices, as means for activists to express, share and render publicly visible a range of embodied urban attachments. Pragmatic sociology, we conclude, may contribute to a novel understanding of urban politics as inclusive learning processes, more hospitable to a wider diversity of familiar attachments to...
TL;DR: This article used qualitative interview data to illustrate how lay accounts of happiness suggest it is experienced in far more "social" ways than these traditional subjective constructions and should therefore be wary of using crude representations of happiness as vehicles for our traditional depictions of modernity.
Abstract: Mainstream British sociology has curiously neglected happiness studies despite growing interest in wellbeing in recent years Sociologists often view happiness as a problematic, subjective phenomenon, linked to problems of modernity such as consumerism, alienation and anomie This construction of ‘happiness as a problem’ has a long history from Marx and Durkheim to contemporary writers such as Ahmed and Furedi Using qualitative interview data, I illustrate how lay accounts of happiness suggest it is experienced in far more ‘social’ ways than these traditional subjective constructions We should therefore be wary of using crude representations of happiness as vehicles for our traditional depictions of modernity Such ‘thin’ accounts of happiness have inhibited a serious sociological engagement with the things that really matter to ordinary people, such as our efforts to balance suffering and flourishing in our daily lives
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined inequalities in access to social capital in terms of the socioeconomic resources that are embedded in personal networks using data from NELLS, a nationally representative survey of the Dutch population aged 15-45 years.
Abstract: Whereas much research has been done on the benefits of social capital, less is known about the causes of the unequal distribution of social capital in people’s networks This study examines inequalities in access to social capital in terms of the socio-economic resources that are embedded in personal networks Using data from NELLS, a nationally representative survey of the Dutch population aged 15–45 years, results show that within this age group access to social capital increases with age and educational qualifications, and is lower among women Residing in a less affluent neighbourhood and scoring lower on a measurement for cognitive abilities are associated with less social capital Participation in voluntary associations and having an ethnically diverse network are associated with more access to social capital Surprisingly, when studying differences across national origin groups, we do not find that Turkish immigrants are disadvantaged in access to social capital
TL;DR: In 2012, the group "Friends of Science in Medicine" (FOSI) lobbied to remove teaching in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) from Australian universities as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In 2012, the group ‘Friends of Science in Medicine’, mostly comprising academic doctors and scientists, lobbied to remove teaching in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) from Australian universities. Seemingly inspired by an earlier UK-based campaign, the group approached vice-chancellors and the media, arguing that CAM degrees promoted ‘pseudo-science’ and ‘quackery’. Although epistemological disputes between biomedicine and CAM are well documented, their emergence in a higher education context is less familiar. This article explores the position-taking of those on each side of the debate, via a thematic analysis of stakeholders’ views as reported in news articles and other outlets. Bourdieu’s concepts of capital and autonomy are used to sketch out the stakes of the struggle. It is argued that the debate is significant not only for what it reveals about the current status of CAM professions in Australia, but for what it suggests more broadly about legitimate knowledge in the university.
TL;DR: This article extended Delanty's conception of community formation by suggesting a distinction between "grounded" and "projected" communities and drew on the author's research to highlight the importance of working more thoughtfully with the idea of community.
Abstract: Sociologists have been debating the idea of community for over a century with some continuing to suggest that it has no relevance in the contemporary world. Attempts to turn to other terms – such as ‘social capital’ – have not worked and many scholars have suggested that the desire for community has increased in a world of global insecurities. Gerard Delanty’s work on the communicative construction of community is the best attempt to unpack the contemporary meaning of the word yet he underplays the dangers of community and he stops short of contemplating the ongoing importance of place. This article extends Delanty’s conception of community formation by suggesting a distinction between ‘grounded’ and ‘projected’ communities. It draws on the author’s research to highlight the importance of working more thoughtfully with the idea of community. It notes that the sociology of community has failed to take account of more than 40 years of community development practice.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a suite of essays that explore the ontological ground upon which ideas of race, citizenship and black identity have been fostered and the need to develop a global sociology that is critically reflexive of its western orientation.
Abstract: In this introductory article we critically discuss where the study of race in sociology has travelled, with the benefit of previously published articles in Sociology supported by correspondence from article authors. We make the argument for sociologies of race that go beyond surface level reconstructions, and which challenge sociologists to reflect on how their discipline is presently configured. What the suite of papers in this collection shows is both the resilience of race as a construct for organising social relations and the slippery fashion in which ideas of race have shifted, transmuted and pluralised. It is in a spirit of recognising continuity and change that we present this collection. Some of the papers already stand as landmark essays, while others exemplify key moments in the broader teleology of race studies. This includes articles that explore the ontological ground upon which ideas of race, citizenship and black identity have been fostered and the need to develop a global sociology that is critically reflexive of its western orientation. The theme of continuity and change can be seen in papers that showcase intersectional approaches to race, where gender, nationality, generation and class offer nuanced readings of everyday life, alongside the persistence of institutional forms of discrimination. As this work demonstrates, middle-class forms of whiteness often go ‘hiding in the light’ yet can be made visible if we consider how parental school choice, or selecting where to live are also recognised as racially informed decisions. The range and complexity of these debates not only reflect the vitality of race in the contemporary period but lead us to ask not so much if race ends here, but where?
TL;DR: The authors examine what homophobia is understood to be and how psychological and organisational discourses make it difficult to make sense of negative experiences and how anti-homosexual attitudes and work environments are sustained and left unchallenged through the claim "it's not personal".
Abstract: Scholarship on homophobia has been critiqued for being individualistic and psychological, failing to account for structural inequalities, experiences of homophobia and discursive manifestations of homophobia. This Economic and Social Research Council funded study attempts to address some of these concerns by focusing on the experiences of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (LGBs) in relation to bullying, harassment and discrimination in the British workplace. We examine what homophobia is understood to be and how psychological and organisational discourses make it difficult to make sense of negative experiences and how anti-homosexual attitudes and work environments are sustained and left unchallenged through the claim ‘it’s not personal’. Drawing on theories of selective incivility and modern discrimination, we illustrate how ambiguous anti-homosexual sentiments are, and argue that the term ‘homophobia’ not only prevents people from challenging negative experiences, but it further masks inequalities based on sexuality at work.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how women navigate through a gendered drug culture, and study how femininities and masculinities are enacted, challenged and recast in a Scandinavian context characterized by gender equality and an anti-drugs culture.
Abstract: Cannabis is sometimes associated with feminine or gender neutral values. Still, most cannabis users are male, and in our data cannabis use is associated with masculinity. In qualitative interviews with 19 female users and a larger sample of male users in Norway, four aspects of cannabis using practices were described as feminine: not providing cannabis, being less involved in cannabis user networks, not handling the drug effects and being concerned about control. Some women challenged gendered expectations and presented themselves as alternative, tough and rebellious through cannabis use. We explore how women navigate through a gendered drug culture, and study how femininities and masculinities are enacted, challenged and recast in a Scandinavian context characterized by gender equality and an anti-drugs culture. We argue that a new egalitarian form of masculinity is getting increasingly important. Still, female users often end up enacting traditional femininities when using cannabis.
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of the class of origin in the occupational outcomes of second generation ethnic minorities and white British in England and Wales was investigated by combining approaches from the migration and social stratification literatures.
Abstract: The article studies the role of the class of origin in the occupational outcomes of second generation ethnic minorities and white British in England and Wales. In so doing, it reconsiders the relationship between ‘ethnic penalties’ and intergenerational social reproduction (or the reverse: intergenerational social mobility) by combining approaches from the migration and social stratification literatures. Two main hypotheses are tested. The first states that the class of origin, or parental social background, helps explain differences in occupational outcomes between ethnic minorities and white British; the second says that intergenerational social reproduction processes vary between groups. Based on data from the United Kingdom Housing Longitudinal Study (UKHLS: 2009–2010), the article finds partial evidence for both hypotheses. In particular, it reveals that the lower social reproduction of Pakistani, Caribbean and African men has particularly negative consequences for higher educated minorities, who do ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify traces of both schools of thought in the ways in which people describe their immediate material environments, and illustrate multi-faceted object relations with reference to the example of keeping warm.
Abstract: Theories of social practice routinely acknowledge the significance of the material world, arguing that objects have a constitutive role in shaping and reproducing the practices of which daily life is made. Objects are also important for those who approach ‘everyday life’ as an ontology, a tradition in which scholarly interest in the material reaches beyond the somewhat pragmatic concerns of practice theory. In this article we identify traces of both schools of thought in the ways in which people describe their immediate material environments. By drawing on an archive of diary material, we illustrate multi-faceted object relations with reference to the example of keeping warm. We conclude that in keeping warm, diarists weave together encounters, tactics and judgements, encountering objects in ways that extend beyond the ‘mere’ enactment of social practice. In analysing these encounters we explore ways of conceptualising the object-world that are especially relevant for studies of everyday life.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that belonging should be recognized as an active and rhythmic practice, creating and recreating relationships, or an "ethic of care" between people, place and history.
Abstract: Belonging is usually seen as a taken-for-granted, and perhaps ill-defined, aspect of everyday life. Through looking at the weather, family life and the local neighbourhood, this article argues that belonging should be recognised as an active and rhythmic practice, creating and recreating relationships, or an ‘ethic of care’, between people, place and history. Using elements of Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis, the article employs a diary written during a week of inclement weather to illustrate how belonging is done through the rhythms and activities of everyday life, such as being a neighbour. This demonstrates how belonging as a way of being-in-the-world, an ‘ontological belonging’, is practical, material and tangible. Repositioning the ‘sense’ of belonging as an everyday activity with tangible consequences brings with it associated responsibilities (an ‘ethic of care’) for place and the people who live there.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use theories of practice to offer new lines of analysis of distinction through food and conclude that distinction occurs through modes of engagement in vegetable consumption, even though their commitment to cooking and shopping intervene in the relationship between class position and vegetable consumption.
Abstract: This article uses theories of practice to offer new lines of analysis of distinction through food. Middle-class households typically consume more vegetables than lower-class households. We examine aspects of vegetable consumption practices that might explain this fact. After briefly presenting theories of practice, we define vegetable consumption as a practice. We use household purchase data collected in 2007 for 2600 French households to address two questions: (1) is this theoretical framework relevant in accounting for the determinants of fresh and processed vegetable purchases, and (2) how do commitments to cooking and shopping intervene in the relationship between class position and vegetable consumption? We conclude that distinction occurs through modes of engagement in vegetable consumption. Because the practice’s teleoaffective structure is consistent with middle-class notions of health and proper food, these households engage more in fresh vegetable consumption, even though their commitment to coo...