ABSTRACT
Lefebvre was one of the first social theorists to pay attention to the details of everyday life outside of macro-social structures, such as kinship patterns, employment and status, that can be generalised from person to person and society to society. Lefebvre’s interest in the everyday was originally a critique of philosophical responses to the perceived banality of post-First World War life. Across social classes, Europeans perceived a loss of meaning and an increase in repetition in their lives. Lefebvre moved from a philosophical response towards sociological investigations of this banality, or ‘everydayness’ (quotidiennété) as it is referred to. At the same time, he developed his philosophical analyses of alienation. This chapter presents both of these parallel streams of thought, arguing that it is impossible to understand Lefebvre’s critiques of everyday life without some comprehension of the thoroughness of his philosophical investigations of alienation and fetishism, spontaneity, desire, subjectivity, spectacle.
