ABSTRACT
Imagine a world without routine or without order, where nothing stays the same, and where there is little that does not change from moment to moment, or from year to year. But this is not a description that accurately depicts many people’s lives or much of the social world in which we all live. Lives and societies are predictable. In many ways, perhaps remarkably so. Most people live in families of one kind or another; most adults go out to work on a regular basis until they retire. Patterns repeat themselves and stability rather than chaos is the mark of everyday life. But why should this be? How are we to make sense of the ways in which our lives are routinely ordered, while also recognizing that change is a prominent feature of contemporary society? These are the questions that this book sets out to answer.
