Life happens in the everyday. The way we spend our everyday defines our tastes, desires and even our anxieties. Our everyday life is punctuated with a variety of routine performances that reinforce these emotions. Everyday life is also the abode of the most ordinary to the most shocking experiences, with infinite shades in between. Everyday is most intimate to us. The ‘residues and leftovers’ of everyday life which are often disregarded offer endless possibilities for social analysis. The myriad activities that we perform are our interactions with the cultural and political logic of the times. The everydayness of this space and its materialities present before us the critical vocabulary to philosophise on the world in which we live in.
The world around us creates different forms of disruptions to our everydayness. When we are informed of diverse kinds of global and local issues, it is their proximity to our everyday life that mostly define our affective responses to them. Whether it be global warming or a recent policy decision of any government, our responses are conditioned by the immediacy of the event to our life. A turn towards sustainable living entails a critical engagement with these mundane and quotidian reflexes which define our lived experiences. It is the transformation of everyday that enhances the texture of human lives. Hence a critical reflexivity to read the seemingly insignificant and fragmentary quotidian experiences becomes imperative, since “the familiar is not necessarily the known” (Hegel). Redeeming the hidden potential of everyday life to unravel the politics and poetics of our existence will help us initiate critical conversations on fundamental aspects of human lives.
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