The mundane and insignificant, the ordinary and the extraordinary: Understanding Everyday Participation and theories of everyday life

Jill Ebrey

doi:10.1080/09548963.2016.1204044

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Understanding Everyday Participation (UEP) research project questions “official” versions of what constitutes cultural participation and “proposes a radical re-evaluation of the relationship between participation and cultural value” (www.everydayparticipation.org/about/test-showcase-page/). This article will map out a selective literature review of everyday life with a particular focus on sociological writing, and additional contributions from both scholars of history and philosophy. It will suggest how such work might illuminate both UEP research and cultural policy development. Furthermore, it makes the case for such literature usefully underpinning the project’s focus on developing the “research–policy–practice nexus”, arguing that a careful analysis of the complexities of everyday life can help to generate more democratic and participatory everyday cultural environments.

Highlights

This article will argue, with reference to intellectual histories of everyday life and the work of Understanding Everyday Participation (UEP), that an agenda for change within cultural policy and practice is well overdue
The everyday concentrates on the lived experience of the quotidian, which, if made the subject of both research and policy development could represent a democratic turn in the cultural politics of everyday life
Cultural policy is deficient in its neglect of everyday life in the following ways

Summary

Introduction

This article will argue, with reference to intellectual histories of everyday life and the work of UEP, that an agenda for change within cultural policy and practice is well overdue. It will suggest how such work might illuminate both UEP research and cultural policy development.

Results

Conclusion