Description

Book Synopsis
Sifting through a wide range of examples drawn from literature, published ethnographies, and firsthand research, this title probes the unobserved moments in our daily lives - waiting for a bus, daydreaming by the window, performing a routine task - and illuminates these 'empty' times as full of significance.

Trade Review
"[The authors] inspire readers to assess the potential mental value associated with commuting, daydreaming, completing routines, performing rituals, and more." Foreword This Week "The book provides us with timely material that may encourage us to continue to try to join up some of the dots in contemporary politics." -- Mary Evans Times Higher Education

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1. Waiting

Chapter 2. Routines

Chapter 3. Daydreaming

Chapter 4. In the Backyards of Modernity?

Appendix: Doing an Ethnography of “Non-events”

Notes
References
Index

The Secret World of Doing Nothing

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    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Thu 9 Jul 2026.

    A Paperback / softback by Orvar Löfgren, Billy Ehn

    4 in stock

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      Publisher: University of California Press
      Publication Date: 01/05/2010
      ISBN13: 9780520262638, 978-0520262638
      ISBN10: 0520262638
      Also in:
      Social and cultural anthropology

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Sifting through a wide range of examples drawn from literature, published ethnographies, and firsthand research, this title probes the unobserved moments in our daily lives - waiting for a bus, daydreaming by the window, performing a routine task - and illuminates these 'empty' times as full of significance.

      Trade Review
      "[The authors] inspire readers to assess the potential mental value associated with commuting, daydreaming, completing routines, performing rituals, and more." Foreword This Week "The book provides us with timely material that may encourage us to continue to try to join up some of the dots in contemporary politics." -- Mary Evans Times Higher Education

      Table of Contents
      Acknowledgments

      Introduction

      Chapter 1. Waiting

      Chapter 2. Routines

      Chapter 3. Daydreaming

      Chapter 4. In the Backyards of Modernity?

      Appendix: Doing an Ethnography of “Non-events”

      Notes
      References
      Index

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