Experiencing the everyday

This book aims to address that which is most relevant and unavoidable present for every human being: namely, everyday existence, that elusive fabric in which most of us dwell most of the time. What is the nature of the everyday? And how can we aproach it? How do events, objets or entities structure the everyday, and how do these things affect our decisions, politics, and well-being? Experiencing the Everyday matters precisely because we have, in many respects for the worse, come to unwittingly discount the significance that attention paid to everyday experience has for our individual and collective well-being, both in short term and in the long.

This publication is based on the Work of the Nordic Summer University study circle Heterologies of the Everyday. It begins with the experience of the everyday itself, looking at the human-made artifacts that fill our homes and workplaces, the towns and cityscapes in which our homes are situated, the greater natural environments which human settlements have in many parts of the world come to dominate, and the feeling of belonging to the everyday per se. The investigations herein work at the intersection of cultural studies, philosphy, literary criticism, art criticism, film studies, urban studies, anthropology and human geography, and include both empirical and theoretical concerns.

The publication targets an international academic audience with interest in perspectives on the everyday from different fields such as philosophy, aesthetics, art history, material culture, anthropology, sociology, and design studies.