Reading The Everyday

by Moran; Joe

• ISBN13: 9780415317085
• ISBN10: 0415317088
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-08-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Everyday life is a growing field of study in cultural studies and cultural theory.Reading the Everydayfleshes out some of the key debates in this field with detailed readings of the spaces, practices and mythologies of quotidian culture. Drawing on the work of continental theorists such as Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, Marc Auge and Siegfried Kracauer, it explores the concrete sites and routines of everyday life, and their representation in political discourse, news media, material culture, sitcoms, reality TV shows, photography, CCTV and webcams. It aims to rethink notions of everyday life within cultural studies, which have traditionally focused on questions of popular culture, consumption and lifestyle.Reading the Everydayinstead investigates some of the most under-explored, banal aspects of quotidian culture, such as office life, commuting, traffic, parking, motorways and mass housing.

Author Biography

Joe Moran is a lecturer in English and American Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	vii
Preface and acknowledgements	ix
Introduction: waiting, cultural studies and the quotidian	1	(28)
Reading the bus stop	3	(4)
Cultural studies and everyday life	7	(6)
The everyday and the public sphere	13	(5)
Rethinking everyday life	18	(4)
Ways of reading	22	(7)
Workspace: office life and commuting	29	(32)
The rise of the Angestellten	30	(6)
Exploring office space	36	(5)
The fall of the middle manager	41	(7)
Ethnographies of commuting	48	(5)
On the Underground	53	(8)
Urban space: the myths and meanings of traffic	61	(33)
Myths of the road	62	(6)
The cost of congestion	68	(4)
The secret history of the traffic light	72	(5)
The parking wars	77	(6)
Watching the pedestrians	83	(11)
Non-places: supermodernity and the everyday	94	(35)
The road to nowhere	95	(6)
Mapping Mondeo land	101	(6)
Roadside cultures	107	(8)
Imagining the new town	115	(9)
Wish we weren't here: boring postcards	124	(5)
Living space: housing, the market and the everyday	129	(34)
Houses and the pseudo-everyday	130	(4)
Location, location, location	134	(6)
The limits of tower-block chic	140	(3)
The politics of housebuilding	143	(8)
House viewings	151	(7)
Reading the market	158	(5)
Conclusion: the everyday and cultural change	163	(7)
Notes	170	(7)
Bibliography	177	(20)
Index	197