| Everyday Life-Question & Answer |
Question 1
‘It is one of the most fundamental paradoxes of our social life that when we are at our most natural, our most everyday, we are also at our most cultural; that when we are in roles that look the most obvious and given, we are actually in roles that are constructed, learned and far from inevitable’ (Willis, 1979: 184).
Discuss Willis’ claim, with reference to relevant material covered in the lectures AND in the readings, on The Self, on Gender, and on Work. You must refer to at least one essential reading for each of the three topics, in a way that is relevant to the question and demonstrates your understanding of the material.
Answer:
The sociology of everyday life tries to look into the everyday life as a force that controls the reality of living in a society. It sees the individuals as actors that employ their expertise in their accomplishment of their goals of maintaining certain positions in the society. Our self identification begins at the very early stages of our development. As a child we learn things by imitation and observation of the surrounding environment, from the people around us and from the objects that encircle our daily existence. According to Mead (1934), this is the connection between self and symbol and language played an integral part in the development of this aspect of societal living. Hence our development depends on the influences that play a pivotal role so that we also start behaving in the same social construct. Blumer (1969) says that the self depends on its interaction with the others around its existence and also how these interactions are interpreted for the benefit of the self. But the self undergoes constant changes due to this interaction with various entities. In the works of Goffman (1959) and Giddens (1990, 1991) we find that the self is to be observed in its reaction to social roles that the individual has to play as a part of the society that he is a member of. It is the society that decides what social role an individual has to play to be a part of it and these roles can differ from society to society, from place to place. But it is in the power of the individual how to act the part of the role that he has been assigned by the society and the individual may choose to define their part even if they agree to respect the rules as laid down by the society they are a part of. This can be seen in the change of the role of women who form an integral part of any society. In sharp contrast to the women as having homely and subverted role that was the societal women in the 1950s started to reform their role in the society by challenging these traditional rules and regulations.
The making of the self has always piqued the curiosity of the sociologists since ages. The self is dependent on the interpersonal communication between the individual and the society and on the grounds on which these two aspects cross each other. So in order to understand the workings of the self, one must take into consideration the situations and contexts that an individual interacts with on a daily basis within the society. In the words of Mead (1934) this self is activity that enables the individual to find their relation to others as well as define one’s own actions and beliefs as one sees it and also in its reaction to other interpersonal relations. Hence the self is a product of social living and interaction, assuming a variety of roles for a better and tolerable social life.
The gender perspective sees the impact of gender on society, the individual, the social roles and social interaction and forms an important feature of the socio-economic and everyday lives of the individuals who form a part of the society. Gender determines the different physiological as well as biological and other deviations that exist in terms of sexual differences and their assigned roles in the society. It is a social construct and the roles assigned are predetermined and is culture and society dependent. Gender differences also control other aspects of societal living and societal position such as labour division, family responsibilities, division of educational access, as well as degree of professional freedom and policy and decision making. Gender roles play a significant role in our everyday life from the way we wear our dresses, how we communicate with others and also how we react to things around us. These attributes are important though often disregarded because they have been ingrained into the human psyche since early childhood stages. But these gender roles have undergone a lot of changes over the time and have also affected religious and cultural viewpoint.
A particular society’s knowledge and understanding of its culture and history has a clear effect on its understanding of gender and gender roles. So such a social construct establishes itself in the minds of the individual through its interaction first with the parents then with the society and the environment in which it is born and brought up. As a result we find that boys learn to show their physical strength and manipulate social environment in their favour while girls learn to display themselves as beautiful objects to be seen by other members of the society. But according to Butler (1990), this is not normal or ‘natural’ as it is this role that manifested again and again will go on to define traditional classification of gender. However the 21st century has ushered in a new era of role shift in gender roles. The organization of family has undergone rapid changes bringing in reversal of traditional roles as well as responsibilities. This leads to the concept of gender equality and no longer sees man as the bread winner of the family and also rejects traditional rules and societal regulations that earlier demanded men to be more intelligent than women and also physically more capable, qualities that would support male dominance in the society.
But whatever the society an individual is a part of, he or she has to be dependent on a system of production in order to survive. This activity of production or work is the process that governs a significant part of the life of an individual. Sociologically, work has been defined as engaging in mental and physical labour to carry out certain activities. It is the basic of a society’s economic system. The main purpose of these activities is to produce objects that are required by the individual in their day to day life. When such a task or job is done in return for a particular sum of money then it becomes a paid job. If such labour is extracted by force then it becomes slavery and if labour is only limited to household work then it is termed as domestic work. The distribution of work may vary from society to society and is also culture dependent as well as on tradition and modernity. Durkheim’s (1997) work shows his ideas on how during the time of industrial revolution work and industry brought rapid changes to the concepts of traditional rules and regulations of societal living.
The exists a relation between gender and work and researches have revealed that most work places were influenced by the societal construct that men and women were different in terms of their productivity at the work place because of their difference in attitude, behavior as well a s their ability to do hard labor. But recent works in this area have shown that the qualities of gender do not in any way have a role to play at the work place as more and more dual earner families have started coming up to prove the same.
References
Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Butler, J (1990). Gender Trouble. Routledge: New York.
Durkheim, E. (1997). The Division of Labor in Society. Free Press: New York.
Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Polity Press: Cambridge.
Giddens, A. (1991). Introduction to Sociology. W.W. Norton & Company: New York.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Polity Press: Cambridge.
Giddens, A. (1992). The Transformation of Intimacy. Polity Press: Cambridge.
Goffman, E. (1959). Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Doubleday Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company, Inc: New York
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, Self, and Society: From the Perspective of a Social Behaviorist, edited, with an Introduction, by Charles W. Morris. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
Willis, P. (1981). Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs. Columbia University Press: New York.
Willis, P. (1978). Profane Culture. Routledge: London and New York.
Question 2
How do the theoretical concepts and tools, and the approaches presented in this unit allow you to develop better understandings of various aspects of everyday life?
In your answer to Question 2 you should refer to relevant material covered in the first lecture, as well as other concepts and theories introduced throughout the lecture series, and apply your insights to three separate weekly topic areas we have covered in this unit (but NOT the topics covered in question 1 – ie NOT the self, gender or work). You must refer to at least one essential reading for each of the three topics, in a way that is relevant to the question and demonstrates your understanding of the material.
Answer:
There are numerous theories that exist about everyday life trying to describe the interaction at the social level involving direct communication and some describing how to live a social life treating it as a stage performance on a daily basis. There are lots of people who have tried to understand this existence and tried to find a meaning in it. A number of theories also exist about everyday life that tries to find out the constraints of societal structure and its effects on the individual way of life. All these refer to a vague and indefinable aspect i.e., what is everydayness and why is it our supreme reality (Schutz, 1972)
A number of empirical studies have been done to ascertain this. The studies look into all the aspects of human behaviour in its social context in every possible kind of environment including social taboos, and include researches on how identities are born in the society and how they are upheld and also how living a simple life also can create complex issues for the individuals of the society.
Everyday life gained prominence when researchers became interested in the daily existence of the individual forming a part of the society. Though earlier works concentrated on the elite strata of the social structure but later studies emphasized on the structure of the society, how it is formed, why certain events are accepted without any question and why people face sadness or happiness and also how to learn and accept the rules of society to be a part of it.
The main challenge of studying everyday life is that it is a very dynamic process and keeps changing and these changes are so subtle and rapid that they actually become very complex procedures. So the main question is what the need to study everyday life. According to Willis (1979), everyday comes with the hidden cover of power, order and social behaviour as well as a deeper understanding of the existing culture. So there is a lot of extraordinary things underlying the most simple and mundane things happening in the society. Everything that we do, from sitting at a food hall to travelling in a bus, we are all following certain societal rules.
According to Goffman (1959), the main reason why all members of a particular society come to be together is that they all chose to ignore that what was not familiar. So this polite indifference is a very important rule of everyday life. For Goffman (1959), the self is nothing but being aware of the variety of roles to be played in the numerous social contexts. These roles include public identity in front of a group of spectators to claim and maintain a social order and respect during the process. This is what Goffman calls manipulation of the rules of living as the image is constructed and adopted to maintain a particular social role and it is the individual who manipulates the rules and maintains them. This has been termed as ‘role distance’ which explains the distance or the difference that an individual creates between his own self and the role he assumes. This distance does not allow the individual to reflect on his self but is only an opportunity for the performer to develop the assumed role to maximum benefit. So a doctor who is friendly with his patients and relieves them with his talks is doing so to gain in his professional role and as Goffman (1959) points out is a display of self identity and self competence to others. At the very basis of Goffman’s idea of self lies Giddens’s (1990, 1991) theory of the idea of reflexivity that tries to give an idea of the psychological and social aspects of everyday living which is actually constructive. So this reflexivity contains the wide variety of social practices that that are continuously modified with newer information and thus ushering in a complex change of character. This might also mean that reflexivity is a social construct that goes beyond the cultural domain and the domain of the self. A common example would be creating maps of places or changing the travel paths of electric trains which lets the expert to involve in reflexivity and hence becomes a major aspect of everyday living.
The idea of personal life is a symbol of individualism and modernism and involves the individuals to go out in search of self-definition and self identification. But modern life is not separate from the work that an individual has to do in order to be a part of a particular society and also to maintain the different roles that has been assumed to remain at a certain position of the society. There is a distinct t difference between work and pleasure or recreational activities. Work is quite important for a social living in everyday life but recreation is also important. However there is a sharp transition between work and pleasure. The workers or employees are bound by rules to work for certain duration of time and can only experience recreation when they are off their jobs. But the time for recreation is very few as the society demands for more competence and efficiency at the work place and at home as well a society. However efforts are being made to make the work place more recreational so that there is a perfect balance between job and recreation and the employees can relax and work more efficiently if they have the opportunity to refresh their minds. This would also result in greater productivity. The very idea of personal lives in everyday societal living also can be linked to several other symbolic aspects that mare the markers of a particular society. This include a particular way of dressing, definite food habits, schooling and education, recreational activities, cultural activities etc. In a modern world scenario, the there are several modern world accessories that determine the status of an indiv9dual in everyday life such a s the presence of modern gadgets like TV, radio, cell phones, net connectivity etc. A variety of other factors also exist such as interpersonal relationship between the members of the society, the home and household goods and personal possessions as well the family members that form a part of the greater society.
References:
Berger, P.L. and Luckmann, T. (1967). The social construction of reality. Doubleday Anchor Books: New York
Giddens, A. (1990). The Consequences of Modernity. Polity Press: Cambridge.
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Polity Press: Cambridge.
Giddens, A. (1992). The Transformation of Intimacy. Polity Press: Cambridge.
Goffman, E. (1959). Presentation of self in everyday life. Doubleday Anchor Books, Doubleday & Company, Inc: Carden City, New York
Schutz, A. (1972). Choice and the Social Sciences. In Lester Embree, ed. Life-World and Consciousness, Northwestern University Press: Evanston
