actual site: mundanebehavior.org

        Well, there was a slew of 'daily life' methodologial interest in
sociology in the late 1970s. The interesting topic here, is that it seems to
contain an interest in power relations in the structuring of the dull and
mundane.
        For instance, email distribution list conversations would be a prime
category for study in my opinion. ;-)

Regards,

Mark Whitaker


http://www.mundanebehavior.org/index2.htm

>Published Thursday, December 2, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News 
>
>Sociologists study the ho-hum and hoi polloi
>BY BARBARA FEDER
>Mercury News Staff Writer 
>
>FEELING a bit ordinary today? No fits of abnormal behavior coming on?
That's good news to two Cal State-Fullerton sociologists, who have launched
an online journal that seeks deep meaning in the ho-hum life.
>
>It's called, appropriately enough, the Journal of Mundane Behavior. And
when it makes its debut in February, its founders hope it will serve as a
kind of antidote for a field they see as increasingly obsessed with 
deviance. 
>
>The brainchild of Scott Schaffer and colleague Myron Orleans, the
peer-reviewed journal ultimately will include interdisciplinary articles on
commuting, small talk and a thousand other inconsequential topics that might
have made for a great "Seinfeld'' episode.
>
>As a society, Schaffer argues, we can learn more about social dynamics,
power and conformity from mining normal behavior, rather than the Jerry
Springer-ized issues such as transsexualism that social scientists seem
prone to study these days. 
>
>"In a sense, these are the basics of sociology, and yet there's been a move
away from the examination of the apparently ordinary. We tend to go for the
extreme because it's easy,'' Schaffer said. "We're trying to reinvigorate
the study of how we maintain social codes -- in spite of the fact that
they're violated so often.''
>
>Schaffer, an enthusiastic 29-year-old instructor, got the idea for the
journal after reading what essentially was a mundane manifesto in
Sociological Theory, a leading journal in the field. The article, by
University of Missouri sociologist Wayne Brekhus, called for a renewed
"study of the unmarked'' and lamented the fact that there was no so-called
Journal of Mundane Behavior to counter numerous journals on social deviance.
>
>Intrigued, Schaffer got Brekhus' blessing to use the name and tapped
Orleans as co-editor.
>
>Since then, submissions have steadily trickled in, often from international
scholars. Anything "inconsequential'' is fodder for this journal, and
upcoming articles include a study of library layouts, notions of power as
displayed in the eating habits of teachers and students in British
classrooms, and an account of behavior in a Japanese elevator. 
>
>Not surprisingly, some have wondered if the journal is a hoax. Others sniff
at online journals, saying they lack the credibility of their older,
paper-based peers.
>
>Still, Brekhus applauds the scholars at California State
University-Fullerton for their undertaking. 
>
>"I meant it as a joke, but as a joke to illuminate a serious message. I'm
delighted that they picked it up,'' Brekhus said. "Most of social life is
not very unusual. When you study extremes, the picture you get of how
society operates is skewed. But there are all these mundane decisions we
make that are far more consequential for society as a whole.''
>
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