ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a conceptual exploration of the nature of hygge as a central part of domestic and social life in Denmark. It argues that clarity and vagueness are not different perspectives on the world, but part of a ‘contemporaneity’ of meaning, presence and practice that is fruitfully explored with a focus on what makes up the elements of atmospheres. Exploring the role of vagueness in central terms, such as hygge, the chapter argues that in understanding the informants’ worlds we need to take informants’ vagueness and ambiguity at face value. The commonness and centrality to social life of the term are reflected in speech formulae such as the welcome or departure greeting ‘hyggeligt at se dig’ or ‘kan du hygge dig’ when departing. Hygge implies dimmed, ‘warm’ lighting dispersed across the room to carve out smaller spaces within spaces around or in which to gather, often assisted by candlelight – called levende lys, ‘living light’ as opposed to artificial.
