Undergraduate module @Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento.

Dr. Alice Dal Gobbo

Programme for academic year 2023/2024

Duration of the course: 48 hours, both frontal lectures and seminars

Contents

This module has the aim of introducing social science students to the broad theme of everyday life for how it relates to processes of social transformation. The intersection of the two problematisations looks somehow counterintuitive and it is not much studied. Everyday life, in fact, seems a rather repetitive space where the social order is reproduced rather than contested. Social transformation, on its part, is normally understood as relying on social mobilisations and movements, or on ‘big’ politics. This ‘banal’ realm where life is reproduced through habitual gestures might seem apart from History and societal developments. Yet, theorists have recognised that everyday life is also a space of resistance and invention, especially when crises uproot the normal flow of existence. As the Covid-19 pandemic has potently made clear, what seems a ‘private’ dimension is always intermeshed with, and affected by, big historical events – to which it responds with creativity. This course is structured around key themes relevant to the understanding of the topic, through which will also be introduced the work of fundamental authors in the literature. There will be both frontal lectures and participative laboratories, to unravel the creative capacities of daily practices and their political and transformative character.

Lecture by lecture program with readings

Aims, objectives and evaluation

By the end of the course, students should have acquired a comprehensive knowledge of key themes and theoretical approaches to the study of everyday life, also taking into account their historical evolution. Seminars will be devoted to empirical and methodological work, current debates, and to the active experimentation of how the studied concepts apply to everyday life experiences.

For those attending, assessment will be based on class attendance, participation in collective discussions and a written paper to be handed in by the date of the exam and that will be presented in person at the end of the course. For non-attending students, the assessment will include a written examination.

Readings

There is no single handbook for the course, and readings will be suggested (and provided) lecture by lecture based on the contents to be discussed. A suggestion for a useful reader is the following:

Highmore, B. (ed.) (2002) The everyday life reader. London ; New York: Routledge.

For those who do not attend the lectures, there will be a selection of recommended readings from the above publication and from the following book:

Highmore, B. (ed.) (2002) The everyday life reader. London ; New York: Routledge, part 1, 4 and 5.

Monticelli, L. (ed.) (2022) The Future Is Now: An Introduction to Prefigurative Politics. S.l.: Bristol University Press, Introduction and chapters 1, 3, 8, 9, 11.