ABSTRACT
In the dreamy routines of daily life, we seldom think of ourselves as accomplished individuals using various skills to negotiate the social things about us. We seldom think of ourselves in this way partly because most of us, most
n Anthony Giddens: structuration and the practical routines of social life 124
n Giddens on modernity and the self 131
Giddens, politics and the third way 137
n Criticisms of Giddens 140
n Pierre Bourdieu: habitus and practical social life 143
Questions of taste: Bourdieu’s Distinction 147
n Criticisms of Bourdieu 148
n Summary points 151
n Further questions 152
n Further reading 152
n Internet links 154
of the time, adopt a ‘natural attitude’ to the world and to others around us, and partly because daily life does indeed exhibit various dream-like qualities. To say that daily life is oftentimes dreamy is to say that much of what we do, as well as why we do what we do, is mysterious. One of the mysteries of our daily or habitual behaviours is that our skills or accomplishments seem to be governed by forces out of the immediate reach of consciousness. Perhaps nowhere is this dreamy not-quite-consciousness of everyday life better dramatized than in the routines we all follow first thing in the morning, after raising from our dream-filled slumbers.
