Practices Of Everyday Life Research Articles

Doing family in three – two partners and an animal companion

ABSTRACT Animals have become increasingly integrated into the human home and family practices. This paper explores the changing role of animals in diverse Polish families. It demonstrates how the presence of ACs and common practices shape and polish couples' lives and influence doing and displaying family. To do so we explored the lives of diverse couples, those who do not yet have children, including LGBTQ families, and those whose children have left the family home, all of them living with ACs. We looked at their diversity through the prism of animals' role in everyday life practices and the interspecies bond being created. We found that in analysed projects ACs were given a high status in the familial hierarchy and played a central role in family everyday lives that can be named a separate phase in the family life course. Our goal was to describe the practices that constitute and express this uniqueness of doing interspecies family triangles/herds. For the everydayness of the interspecies family, the concept of family This paper describes how the emotional interspecies kinship is being practiced by human couples with ACs, who took part in our study.

Being ‘a good mother’ in Türkiye: negotiating expert advice and intensive motherhood

This study explores middle-SES Turkish women’s perceptions of being a good mother within a context-specific version of intensive motherhood and the intercessions of expert advice with their motherly subjectivities through a phenomenological approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with three groups of 12 mothers each with children aged 0–6, 7–12 and 13–18, a total of 36 women living in Istanbul. According to findings, middle-SES Turkish mothers, in line with expert advice, shift their prioritisation of the child’s secure attachment to supporting the child’s future chances through education as they grow older. Mothers’ agency out of these concerns is a culturally positioned resource that enables social mobility. However, with the experience of mothering, these concerns are negotiated in everyday life and mothering practices are reflexively (re)constructed in a logic in which the subjective wellbeing of the mother and the child are sought to be brought together. This study argues that these negotiations are tied to increasing experience in mothering and the availability of conflicting expert advice.

Masculine Violence in Turkish Folk Dances

As a social issue, violence continues to manifest and remains a current topic of academic research. Scientific studies mostly focus on the individual and societal dimensions of violence; however, studies that address violence in the context of everyday life practices remain limited. This study argues that violence has a masculine character as a result of gender inequality and within the framework of the masculinity-power relationality. On the other hand, this study considers folk dances as a product of social culture and views them as an effective form of non-verbal communication within society. The study is based on the claim that, in folk dances observed in formal or informal ceremonial events, which are part of everyday life and contain elements of violence, violence is legitimized as a spectacle. In this context, local folk dances from different regions of Turkey, performed exclusively by male dancers and portraying themes of heroism, victory, bravery, and courage, have been selected as examples. These include Trabzon Bıçak Horonu, Bursa Kılıç-Kalkan, Manisa Seğmen Sekmesi, Balıkesir Bengi, Erzurum Köroğlu Barı, Giresun Tüfekli Çandır Karşılaması, and Diyarbakır Şur-u Mertal. The violent content of these dances has been analyzed through the method of semiotic analysis. Weapons used in these dances, fast and rhythmic tunes, and rigid movements have been considered as indicators of violence. It has been concluded that these dances, admired and enthusiastically applauded, normalize violence. This study makes a significant contribution by addressing folk dances within the context of violence and aims to fill the gap in the literature in this field.

Recent developments in second home research: has the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a re-thinking of second home mobilities?

ABSTRACT This paper explores whether the COVID-19 pandemic has initiated a “re-thinking” of second home mobilities globally. For a long time, second homes have mainly been seen as a leisure space and part of tourism consumption in rural areas in contrast to more productive, entrepreneurial and residential functions and practices. We claim that the pandemic has pinpointed second homes’ increasingly integrated role in everyday life practices, including being spaces for productive and regenerative ends, such as work, safety and health. Furthermore, the importance of second homes within a wider mobility framework is also highlighted, where second homes should be seen as not only a type of tourism mobility. In this paper, we carry out a literature review that aims to expand from the well-established tourism, rural studies and geography perspectives on second home mobilities and connect second homes to identify new research pathways which have been highlighted during the pandemic. By doing so we will pinpoint the growing avenues and future directions for second home research.

Oral health in analog astronauts on space-simulated missions: an exploratory study.

Space, an extreme environment, poses significant challenges to human physiology, including adverse effects on oral health (e.g., increase of periodontitis prevalence, caries, tooth sensitivity). This study investigates the differences in oral health routines and oral manifestations among analog astronauts during their daily routines and simulated space missions conducted on Earth. This research focused on scientist-astronaut candidates of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) and analog astronauts from other institutions. The study used a cross-sectional methodology with a descriptive component. A total of 16 participants, comprising individuals aged between 21 and 55 years, were invited to complete an online questionnaire. A comparison was made between the subjects' oral hygiene practices in everyday life (designated as Earth in this research) and their oral hygiene routines during their space analog missions. (i) Toothbrushing duration was mostly "1-3 minutes" (n = 13; 81.30% on Earth; n = 11; 68.80% on a mission); (ii) "time spent" was the greatest difficulty in maintaining oral hygiene routine on a mission (n = 9; 53,6%); (iii) There were more experienced oral symptoms on Earth (n = 12; 75%) than on mission (n = 7; 43.80%); (iv) The most frequent frequency of oral check-ups was "> 12 months" (n = 6; 37,5%); (v) Oral health materials were scarce on the mission (n = 9; 56.30%); (vi) For the majority, personal oral hygiene was classified as "good" (n = 9; 56.30% on Earth; n = 7; 43.80% on the mission). This research contributes to increasing knowledge of oral hygiene measures in extreme environments, but further research is needed as this topic remains relatively understudied. This study represents an initial contribution to oral health in analog space missions, aiming to propose guidelines for future missions, including deep space missions and expeditions to extreme environments.

Youthscape of Palestinian everyday life: Rethinking modes of resilience and production of opportunities in Jerusalem

ABSTRACT Driven by local–global factors, youth are mostly the architects who shape their societies. The youthscape in Palestine is shaped by the dynamics of asymmetrical power within challenging geopolitical conditions under the Israeli occupation. Amid individual variations, Palestinian youth struggle for a quality life under uncertainties. This study investigates the perception of everyday life among the youth (18–25 years) of Beit Hanina neighborhood in Jerusalem as they encounter Israeli colonial infrastructure. De Certeau’s theories of space and everyday life and Luhmann’s system differentiation theory are applied. This study qualitatively adopts a survey-based methodology to investigate the relationship between the youth experiences while crossing checkpoints. A conceptual framework is employed to triangulate space, time, and the youth experiences. Modes of resilience are analyzed through the intersectionality of emerging patterns of practices of everyday life and sense of agency to produce a new paradigm of opportunities. The current study clarifies how the youth negotiate their everyday life practices between their own modes of resilience and production of opportunities, thus reshaping the youthscape in East Jerusalem. This study contributes to the literature on everyday life of the youth, particularly within a colonial context.

Civic Engagement in Urban Planning and Development

The scientific literature has revealed that there is often a discrepancy between urban planning initiatives and the actual development of cities. Urban development is a complex process strongly affected by the self-organisation of citizens and entrepreneurs, who produce services and events, create new public places, and shape urban regeneration through everyday practices. However, the actors of self-organised urban development are rarely met in participatory urban planning practices. The gap raises the research problem of how to recognise and facilitate civic engagement in urban development. The authors of this article have been investigating the ontology and methodology of urban planning and development over the past two decades, culminating in the framework of expanded urban planning. The article aims to present multiple approaches to civic engagement in urban planning and development, based on an updated longitudinal study conducted in a Helsinki neighbourhood. The authors argue that urban planning should be updated with expanded urban planning (EP), which extends the focus of civic engagement from public participation to self-organisation and everyday life practices.

Implementasi Sila Pertama Pancasila dalam Tradisi Hajat Sasih Maulid di Kampung Naga: Studi Kualitatif dan Deskriptif

The Hajat Sasih Maulid tradition in Kampung Naga is a tangible embodiment of the noble values of Pancasila, particularly the first principle. This study explores in depth how this tradition serves as a bridge between faith and deeds, belief and concrete actions. Through a descriptive qualitative approach, the research uncovers the religious, social, and cultural dimensions inherent in this tradition. The findings indicate that Hajat Sasih Maulid functions not only as a religious ritual but also as a means to strengthen national values, preserve the environment, and build a just and prosperous society. Additionally, the tradition serves as a medium for moral education, teaching the connection between spirituality and social responsibility, supporting community solidarity, and encouraging active participation in cultural heritage preservation. This research highlights the importance of local traditions in the national context and their contribution to harmonizing Pancasila values with everyday life practices.

Mētis: a framework for understanding tactics of resistance

ABSTRACT Teachers’ negative experiences of high-stakes accountability have been documented extensively, but the ways in which teachers are able to engage in tactics of resistance in response are less well known. This is most especially true in terms of the subtle, covert forms of resistance which occur through the practice of teachers’ everyday working lives. This paper contributes through a novel exploratory application of ‘Mētis’, a framework for understanding tactics of resistance derived from the thought of Detienne and Vernant (1978). When Mētis is harnessed alongside de Certeau’s (1984) notion of the practice of everyday life, it provides an innovative means of exploring the complex, elusive and intricate ways in which teachers pursue tactics of resistance within a context of high-stakes accountability. By so doing, it demonstrates how teachers are able to evade or resist high-stakes accountability in order to pursue their own educational goals. Thus, the article also adds to an understanding of the gap between policy formulation and its enactment. This initial exploratory study contributes to the literature by offering a transferable conceptual approach which is recommended for broader use while identifying some important considerations which attend the empirical application of Mētis.

Mobility practices in a changing climate: Understanding shifts in car ownership and use across the life course

Mobility practices in everyday life are often highly routinised and resistant to change. But they can also change significantly over the life course, reflecting sudden ruptures linked to incisive life events and more gradual shifts related to changing societal and environmental conditions. Combining insights from practice-theoretical mobility studies and mobility biographies research, this paper critically examines the role of material, social and cultural elements in transforming routine mobility practices, focusing on car ownership and use across the life course. Drawing on mobility-biographical interviews with people who live in Munich (Germany) and who do not own a car, it reveals the complexity of both one-off and daily decisions that help to establish and routinise carless mobility practices, linking them to social and material conditions past and present. The paper also documents the role of environmental and climate-related arguments in the transition towards carlessness, alongside shifts in infrastructure, social and economic circumstances and mobility-related skills and meanings. It concludes with some recommendations for sustainable mobility policy that works with the dynamics of car ownership and use across the life course and that incorporates both social and material aspects underpinning people’s decision to give up their private car.

Children’s rights in action: involving care-experienced individuals in academic lessons

ABSTRACT Focusing on children’s right to participate, as outlined in Article 12 of the 1989 Children’s Rights Convention, there is a growing body of research on involving children and young people in participatory practices in institutional meetings, everyday life, and peer research. However, fewer are the initiatives involving care-experienced young people in social work and educational professional training, as well as in academic education. Building on these considerations, this article describes the involvement of two care experienced young women coming from alternative care experiences within the Course of Work and Organizational Psychology, Social Work BA, Sapienza, University of Rome, Italy. Drawing on ethnographic notes taken during co-planning, co-delivering, and receiving feedback, I critically reflect on the methodological challenges and necessary psychological considerations of such initiatives, paving the way for future participatory training and academic opportunities for social workers.

Transnational social fields of Italian Bangladeshis in Europe and beyond: Towards a new geography of ways of belonging

AbstractIn view of the growing onward migration and multisited transnationalism among naturalized EU citizens, this article seeks to advance the current understanding of transnational social fields, cataloguing the complex interplays of migrants' ways of being, belonging, and in‐betweenness across different places and spaces. Drawing on multisited qualitative research with Italian Bangladeshis in Italy and the United Kingdom, the paper presents how their ‘ways of being’ are expressed by maintaining transnational attachments to the country of origin and the wider Bangladeshi diaspora. In addition, they maintain transnational ‘ways of belonging’ by incorporating the Bengali language, culture, traditions, and values, and transmitting them to the next generation. Beyond these multiplicities of being and belonging, the findings put forward two important, yet contrasting, observations. On the one hand, there is an ongoing pursuit of onward migration to the UK among a section of the community—often influenced by social networks and transnational connections with the recognised Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK. Apart from being in the ‘community comfort zone’ and language advantage in the integration process, many migrants perceive living in the UK as having a higher ‘prestige’, ‘class’ or ‘status’ vis‐a‐vis Italy in terms of life quality, wealth, cultural, and religious freedom. On the other hand, another cohort is emotionally and culturally embedded in Italian societies and is in a dilemma of whether to migrate onward. In this process, they constantly blend, shift, and negotiate their ways of belonging. The findings unfold how a new geography of belonging takes shape, characterised by fluidities, multifaceted identities, and everyday life practices in a transnational space.

Exploring Malay Parenting Patterns and Cultural Identity in Medan City: Traditions, Values, Adaptation in an Urban Context

This research explores early childhood parenting patterns and Malay culture in Medan City, Indonesia. With a focus on traditions, values, and adaption in urban context, this research explores how Malay culture remains relevant in child-rearing patterns amidts dynamic changes in the urban environment. The research method involved in-depth interviews with parents and Malay community leaders living in Medan City, as well as observations of child-rearing practices in everyday life. The research results show that despite adaption to urban development, Malay cultural traditions and values remain the main basis for parenting patterns. However, there are also challenges faced in maintaining Malay cultural identity in globalization and modernization. The implication of this research is the importance of understanding the dynamic of local culture in a urban context to strengthen cultural identity and enrich the study of child-rearing patterns in Indonesia.

‘The bit of bread, the draught of coffee’: Food Imagery in Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847) foregrounds the subject of food, depicting the material culture of mid-Victorian society. The text is rife with alimentary imagery and metaphors. Each section of the novel explores different aspects of food, hunger and privation, drawing upon food motifs in varying degrees to map out the heroine’s development into a moral agent. In general, food discourse tends to elucidate the major themes of the novel: childhood trauma; identity formation; education and discipline; love, marriage and sexuality. The novel thus suggests that the issue of food is associated with a wide range of human experience. It engages the reader to critically reappraise food and its consumption, seemingly a banal practice of everyday life, which resonates with material, symbolic and socio-cultural significance.

Pendampingan Penguatan Kurikulum Madrasah Diniyah dalam Meningkatan Kualitas Generasi Millenial

Early education has an important role in forming a quality millennial generation. The quality of early education can be seen from the curriculum implemented. A quality Diniyah curriculum enables the millennial generation to understand religion and its practice in everyday life. This mentoring program was carried out with the aim of describing the existence of the Madrasah Diniyah curriculum. Furthermore, curriculum development was carried out as an effort to prepare a quality millennial generation. The mentoring method uses Participatory Action Research. This method is used in the context of community service research in designing the development of the Madrasah Diniyah curriculum. Curriculum development strengthens aspects of the Arabic language, especially the ability to understand grammar. The media and learning methods used adapt modern methods and maintain classical methods as "genuine" methods in Islamic boarding school communities.

Anthropomorphic Robotic Hand Prosthesis Developed for Children.

The use of both hands is a common practice in everyday life. The capacity to interact with the environment is largely dependent on the ability to use both hands. A thorough review of the current state of the art reveals that commercially available prosthetic hands designed for children are very different in functionality from those developed for adults, primarily due to prosthetic hands for adults featuring a greater number of actuated joints. Many times, patients stop using their prosthetic device because they feel that it does not fit well in terms of shape and size. With the idea of solving these problems, the design of HandBot-Kid has been developed with the anthropomorphic qualities of a child between the ages of eight and twelve in mind. Fitting the features of this age range, the robotic hand has a length of 16 cm, width of 7 cm, thickness of 3.6 cm, and weight of 328 g. The prosthesis is equipped with a total of fifteen degrees of freedom (DOF), with three DOFs allocated to each finger. The concept of design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA) has been integrated into the development process, enabling the number of parts to be optimized in order to reduce the production time and cost. The utilization of 3D printing technology in conjunction with aluminum machining enabled the manufacturing process of the robotic hand prototype to be streamlined. The flexion-extension movement of each finger exhibits a trajectory that is highly similar to that of a real human finger. The four-bar mechanism integrated into the finger design achieves a mechanical advantage (MA) of 40.33% and a fingertip pressure force of 10.23 N. Finally, HandBot-Kid was subjected to a series of studies and taxonomical tests, including Cutkosky (16 points) and Kapandji (4 points) score tests, and the functional results were compared with some commercial solutions for children mentioned in the state of the art.

Ordinary Ottomans: post-World War I settlements and experiences of the end of empire

ABSTRACT In the introduction to this special issue, we address the concepts of ordinariness and Ottomanness, and how they intersect within the general context of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. 1 Given the already existing scholarship on ordinary groups or individuals in the history of the Middle East, we first position ordinariness as context-specific; that is, we understand it as subjected to various forms of exclusion from the elite. Second, within the framework of the major political changes that characterise the end of Empire we explore ordinariness and how it is embedded in everyday life and practices. We interrogate the capacities of individuals to maintain regularity through ordinary practices, after or despite a disruptive episode. We argue that persisting with everyday life practices despite crisis can serve as a strategy to reclaim spaces of autonomy from power structures. However, we also demonstrate that ordinary individuals, being vulnerable subjects or citizens, are also subject to change. These questions eventually lead us to rethink the debate on ‘continuities and ruptures’ within the post-Ottoman context. We suggest that framing Ottomanness as a time-marker, rather than as an identity-marker (Ottoman-era), allows us to focus on how groups and individuals coped with these changes, rather than attempting to define them.

From National Traitors to National Contributors: Contesting Place and Identity through the Voluntarily Repatriated Vietnamese

This study investigates the multifaceted repatriation experiences of Vietnamese individuals who voluntarily returned from Thailand to the upland region of Thanh Hóa province between 1963 and 1965. Utilizing a historical and ethnographic approach, with interviews conducted in February, March, and April 2019; January 2020; May 2022; December 2023; and January 2024, it examines the intricate interplay of political, social, and cultural dynamics that shaped the repatriation process. The study highlights the relocation and deprivation of rights faced by the returnees, emphasizing the political complexities of repatriation. Through a multi-level analysis, this study reveals the intricate relationship between capital management, everyday life practices, and identity contestation. Additionally, it examines the collectivization and nationalist policies of Vietnam in relation to the voluntarily repatriated people’s commitment to work for the nation. In this case, transculturality served as a pivotal element in the construction of place and identity. The study analyzes the various forms of capital that shape individual and collective identities. By engaging in transcultural and localized processes of everyday life practices, returnees exercised various kinds of capital to enhance the efficiency of workers’ cooperatives. This led to new regulations supplementing those of the state, resulting in a variety of efficient cooperatives. Consequently, the repatriated peoples’ home village transformed from a symbol of national betrayal to a thriving cultural and economic hub. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted complexity of repatriation and its implications for identity construction, placemaking, and economic development.

Radical socialization? Analysis of the secondary socialization process in the table tennis environment

The article is devoted to the analysis of the secondary socialization process in the table tennis environment. Sports communities represent a specific case study in this context because the secondary socialization processes occurring in them seem more radical. The sports environment is characterized by highly specific features and values conveyed, and interest in this phenomenon may be heightened because sports are a relatively less studied area in terms of their socialization impact on individuals. The main goal of the text is to analyse the specificity of the table tennis environment as a secondary socialization environment. More specific goals include issues related to the specific bonds and relationships formed in such an environment, the specific communication system (slang and characteristic meanings), and the impact of the sports environment on the relations of table tennis players with the world outside of sports. The qualitative analysis allowed for discovering unique patterns that characterize the socialization process in the sports environment. Among these patterns is the blurring of boundaries between values acquired in the sports environment and the external world, as the respondents transferred sports principles to everyday life practices. The totality of socialization in the sports environment also influences the formation of a specific “socialization bubble” and problems in establishing relationships with people not belonging to the sports world: the sports environment became, for many respondents, a reality in itself, generating bonds, rules, and communication patterns for its participants.

Smartphones in the Hands of Rural Women: Embracing Informal Learning for Digital Literacy

Based on observations of a rural community and in-depth interviews with five rural women, this paper shows how access to smartphones enables marginalised rural women to engage in digital literacies in their everyday life practices. The research shows that rural women learn digital skills, communication skills, and literacies in an unplanned and informal way within the family setting and their neighbourhood and through commercial activities in the local markets. The paper concludes that policymakers have much to learn from the unplanned and informal ways in which these rural women are developing their digital literacies in their everyday life through having access to smartphones. Therefore, using smartphones with informal learning approaches could provide a foundation for future literacy programmes.