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- Convenors:
-
Lena Marander-Eklund
(Åbo Akademi University)
Tove Ingebjørg Fjell (University of Bergen)
Charlotte Hagstrom (Lund University)
Send message to Convenors
- Chairs:
-
Tove Ingebjørg Fjell
(University of Bergen)
Charlotte Hagstrom (Lund University)
Lena Marander-Eklund (Åbo Akademi University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- TEMPORALITIES
- Location:
- Room K-206
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 15 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Our everyday lives are filled with activities and actions that we repeat on a daily basis. We invite papers on the repetition and the recurrence, the resumption and the reinvention of everyday habits. Papers may focus on either the (re-)formation of specific habits or habits as a field of research.
Long Abstract:
Walking the dog. Washing your hands. Waiting in line. Our everyday lives are filled with activities and actions that we repeat on a daily basis. Usually, we perform such everyday actions without giving much thought to what we do or why we do it. Having to consciously calculate every step and decide what to do in each situation would drain us of energy and consume an excessive amount of time. Without habits and routines, everyday life would be unbearably complicated. But how does something become a habit and why do we stick to a routine? When does it become a hindrance more than a help, and what is required to change it? Will the temporary adaptations we have had to make during the pandemic become permanent? Is it at all possible to return to the everyday lives the way it used to be and re-adopt the habits we entertained before the pandemic? The study of everyday habits was an important research topic for earlier generations of ethnologists and folklorists, and in this session, we want return to them. We invite papers on the repetition and the recurrence, the resumption and the reinvention of everyday habits. Papers may focus on either the (re-)formation of specific habits or habits as a field of research. We welcome papers in English.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 15 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
More than a quarter of the world’s adult population do not meet the recommended levels of physical activity set by WHO. Focusing on bicycling as a means of recreation and transport at different stages of life, this paper discusses the role of habits and routines in fulfilling the recommendations.
Paper long abstract:
According to The World Health Organization, WHO, adults should do at least 150-300 minutes of physical activity throughout the week. However, more than a quarter of the world’s adult population do not meet the recommended levels. In high-income countries the insufficient activity increased by 5% between 2001 and 2016. Reasons for the decline in physical activity are sedentary behaviours in the home and at the workplace, inaction during leisure time, and an increase in the use of passive modes of transportation. In this paper, based on answers to an open-ended questionnaire about bicycling, I focus on everyday habits and routines involving physical activity and transportation from a life-course perspective. Though some habits are abandoned, and others change or are adapted as we get older and enter new stages and situations, we retain throughout life many of the habits that were formed in childhood. By analysing how the respondents describe how, why and when they have used - and not used - cycling as a means of recreation and transport at different stages of life, I discuss the importance of habits and routines for fulfilling WHO's recommendations.
Paper short abstract:
How do people cope with things when life changes and takes on a new path? With this question, I have returned to the ethnographic material from an ongoing study of persons with visual impairments. In my presentation I will discuss the re-orientations that takes place within the interviews, and consequently also in the informants’ everyday lives.
Paper long abstract:
How do people cope with things when life changes and takes on a new path? How do they carry on with previously well-known habits and routines when they are no longer able to fulfill them with the same easiness as earlier? What will one do when the sheer reality, embedded in the body and its fading senses, is working against the everyday habits that up to this point were the backbone of the day? Starting from this kind of questions I have returned to the ethnographic material from an ongoing study of the white cane as an aid for persons with visual impairments.
In the interviews my informants are frequently telling me about how they perceive, and try to handle, the loss of former capacities. Often these narratives are closely related to their anxiety towards an even more troublesome future. This is particularly true in connection with those persons who are suffering from r.p. (retinitis pigmentosa). They know that their still existing visual abilities will gradually become more limited and hence also a greater threat towards ordinary life. In my presentation I will discuss the obstacles and re-orientations that takes place within the interviews, and consequently also in the informants’ everyday lives. Additionally, I will also shed light onto which new everyday habits and routines they are positioning themselves towards. As life will carry on, one way or another.
Paper short abstract:
Focus in on how Coronavirus resulted in new routines in spring 2020 in Finland. In the paper I investigate how everyday routines such as going to the grocery store, taking the bus or washing hands became re-organized and charged with new cultural meaning.
Paper long abstract:
In the spring of 2020, the novel Coronavirus was about to change everyday life. On March 12, the government in Finland recommended that people should work from home. Activities considered non-essential was restricted in order to reduce the spread of the virus. On March 16, a state of emergency was declared. The normal rhythm and order of everyday life became unpredictable and chaotic, empty shelves in grocery stores became headline news. At the same time new routines emerged.
The aim of this paper is to investigate how the virus resulted in new practices, and routines that to some extent re-established a sense of cultural and existential order. In the paper I investigate how routines such as going to the grocery store, taking the bus or washing hands became re-organized and charged with new cultural meaning; the virus resulted in intense attention to bodily practices and thus self-regulation.
The paper is based on a questionnaire focusing on how Corona affected everyday life in Finland. The questionnaire was published on March 12 and some 350 answers were received in just under a week. The paper is based on an article in Swedish published in Tidsskrift for Kulturforskning 2021/1 together with Fredrik Nilsson.
Paper short abstract:
The pandemic has brought with it a number of different habits, like covering mouths and noses, and keeping a distance when in public. Will some of the new habits continue post-pandemic? How do informants visualize post-pandemic times, when it comes to habits?
Paper long abstract:
A few years ago, politicians from the Progress Party (Fremskrittspartiet) commented that immigrants to Norway should do as the Romans when in Rome, that is, shaking hands and not covering faces when in Norway. These statements did not age well. Shaking hands came to an immediate stop in March 2020, and some months later, face masks were recommended, some places even mandatory. In addition distance grew larger between pedestrians, and between restaurant guests; entering a workplace with a cough and a cold was stigmatized etc. A number of different previous trivial habits changed when the pandemic arrived. There is still a pandemic, and it is too early to find out which of the new habits that will continue post-corona. In this presentation I will discuss a few selected new habits, like the use of face masks and keeping a distance, and I will question whether and how these pandemic initiated habits will stay on a more permanent basis. Research material will be interviews on how informants visualize post-corona times.
Paper short abstract:
Greeting behavior express and create identity, signal personal attitude and group belonging. This paper investigates changes in greeting behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on hugging and cheek kissing. The empirical base consists of answers to web-based questionnaires during 2016-2022.
Paper long abstract:
The theoretical starting point for this paper is that greeting behavior is constituted of socially recognizable actions, manifesting the culture that produces that behavior. How we greet each other is from such a perspective a linguistic and cultural everyday practice that reveals how we perceive ourselves and others. Greeting behavior express and create identity, and signal personal attitude as well as group belonging.
With theoretical inspiration from the fields of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, this paper investigates changes in greeting behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic, focusing on hugging and cheek kissing. The empirical base consists of answers to web-based questionnaires on greeting behavior during 2016-2022.
In this paper, I will show that the way we greet and say goodbye to each other is processes involving a lot of thought, consideration, concern and reflection. This is especially clear when it comes to hugs and cheek kisses, and in relation to changes in everyday life during the Covid-19 pandemic. These changes highlight that it is culturally demanded that we greet each other in some way, and consequently the restrictions during the pandemic has prompted new and creative ways of greeting behaviors including touching elbows and the so-called Wuhan shake.