"Sociology of Everyday life. Lifestyles, образ жизни,

Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings in Russia."

Dr. Denis GruberState University of St. PetersburgFaculty of SociologyDAAD-Lecturer for Sociology

Themenübersicht

• meeting: 12.02.2009: Introduction• meeting: 19.02.2008: Concepts of Lebensführung,

Lebensweise, lifestyle• meeting: 26.02.2009: Lifestyle, Everyday life and milieus• meeting: 05.03.2009: Lifestyle, everyday life and socialism• meeting: 12.03.2009: Lifestyle, everyday life and work in

socialist period• meeting: 19.03.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia:

Gender Aspects

Themenübersicht

• meeting: 26.03.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: housing situation

• meeting: 02.04.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Poverty, homelessness, „The search for security“

• meeting: 16.04.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Religious communities and affiliation

• meeting: 23.04.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Family structures and demographic trends

Themenübersicht

• meeting: 30.04.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Deviance I - Prostitution, Pornography, AIDS,

• meeting: 21.05.2009: Everyday life in contemporary Russia: Deviance II: physically disabled and mentally handicaped persons, consumption of drugs and alcohol

1. Meeting:Concepts of Lebensführung, Lifestyles, Lifeworld

"Sociology of Everyday life. Lifestyles, образ жизни,

Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Findings in Russia."

Concepts of Lifestyle

Key Questions

• What does the notion of „everyday life“ mean?

• What does „Lebensführung“ (lifestyle, modus vivendi, way of life) mean?

• Which differences for lifestyle are obvious in comparision of the Soviet and the contemporary period?

Concepts of Lifestyle• sociologically, two important functions:1. classify or categorize the practitioner within a broader social matrix2. offer practitioners a unique sense of self and identity• combine material and symbolic processes• practical ways of providing for basic needs and requirements such as food,

clothing, and shelter• also aesthetic and symbolic expressions of one's sense of self and of one's

membership among certain social groups.• lifestyles occur at the intersection of individual agency and social structure• has sustained as a key sociological concept, capable of bridging the divide

between macro-level concerns a bridge between large scale social structures and social groupings, and

micro-level concerns with the subjective dimensions of agency, meaning, and identity

Approaches of Lifestyle in Sociologyresearch of Lebensführung is closely-linked with important

sociological approaches like • Karl Marx class concept and differentiation of work and

reproduction• Max Weber rational „way of life“ (Lebensführung)• Durkheim differentiation theory• Simmel cultural criticism about the individual• life style research with the focus on disparities in

Lebensführung (Bolte, Kudera, Voß)• Sociology of leisure• Habermas differentiation between system and

Lebenswelt • Habitus theory Bourdieu

Lebensführung-Max Weber• traditionale Lebensführung: refers to

routines and „valid“ norms of the everyday

• strategische Lebensführung: can be seen as a kind of planning ones life to reach aims

• situative Lebensführung: does not follow routines and rational or logical aspects, but is characterized by flexiblity

Tuesday, April 18, 2023 11

Georg Simmel

Simmel began with the elements of everyday life:- playing games- keeping secrets- being a stranger- forming friendships- the quality of relationships

Tuesday, April 18, 2023 12

Georg Simmel: Social Types

The Stranger“The stranger” in Simmel’s terminology, is not just a wanderer “who comes today

and goes tomorrow,” having no specific structural position. On the contrary, he is a “person who comes today and stays tomorrow…He is fixed within a particular spatial group…but his position…is determined…by the fact that he does not belong to it from the beginning,” and that he may leave again.

The stranger is “an element of the group itself” while not being fully part of it. He therefore is assigned a role that no other members of the group can play. By virtue of his partial involvement in group affairs he can attain an objectivity that other members cannot reach…Moreover, being distant and near at the same time, the stranger will often be called upon as a confidant…In similar ways, the stranger may be a better judge between conflicting parties than full members of the group since he is not tied to either of the contenders…

Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)

• Dramaturgical approach to understanding human behavior and interactions.

• Impression management in everyday settings• How does the self form, act, and change in response

to interactions with others?

Concept „Alltägliche Lebensführung“ (Everyday life)

• Following Weber’s investigations in “Lebensführung” the concept of “Alltägliche Lebensführung” was elaborated in the 1980s and 90s (Bolte, Voß and Kudera)

• In this approach “Lebensführung” is understood as a balance of contradictory demands and claims which fulfils important functions for individuals as well as society and for the mediation of both spheres (cf. Voß 1995:37)

• Lebensführung is a “bridge” between the individual and the society, it is a societal ordinal factor which encloses the creation of the everyday life (Bolte 2000:27)

.

Concept „Alltägliche Lebensführung“ (Everyday life)

key points of this approach refer to (cf. Weihrich 1998:6):• Lebensführung refers to an everyday connection of the practical life. It

concerns with the question how a person organizes the everyday life.• Lebensführung is understood as an active achievement of construction of

individuals who have to connect different activities, demands and expectations.

• Lebensführung is not only determined by specific social structures but it also depends on specific historical circumstances

• Lebensführung is a category between individual and societal structures

• concept refers to a rising educational level, decline of the type of "normal family", changed life plans and life orientations, increasing differentiation of the employer-employee relationships, flexibility of working hours (cf. Kudera 2000:77 following)

• Lifestyle is understood as a balance by contradictory demands and claims

• Lifestyle becomes the individual and social ordinal factor, it encloses the order of the everyday life

Concept „Alltägliche Lebensführung“ (Everyday life)

• Lifestyle expresses „how a person refers to the different societal spheres and arranges with these partial, spatially, contentually“ (Voß 1995:32)

• Lifestyle means the „arrangement of the single arrangements of a person“ (Voß in 1995: 32)

• These arrangements are changeable, they vary due to the interplay of different persons and depend on respective living conditions (cf. Kudera/Voß 2000:16)

• but these arrangements can stabilize human lifestyle they can be important for secure bases and methods, own rules, priorities and routines“ (Kudera/Voß 2000:17)

Concept „Alltägliche Lebensführung“ (Everyday life)

Following Kudera (1995) lifestyles can be classified as follows:

1.differentiation (easy-complex)2.elasticity (open-closed, stiff-flexible) 3.stability (robust-fragile)4.processing capacity of contradictions5.regulation

6.available resources

Summary: The Concept of „Everyday Lifestyle“

Weihrich (1998:6) • a) lifestyle refers to the everyday connection of the practical life. It

is not the question what a person is doing, but how the everyday is organized!

b) lifestyle is an active construction achievement of the person who must bind different activities, demands and expectations to an arrangement

c) lifestyle is not only determined by societal structures, because its form and logic depends also on historical situation

d) lifestyle means a category between the individual (subject) and social structures.