Journal of Mundane Behavior
Encyclopedia
The Journal of Mundane Behavior is a scholarly sociology journal devoted to everyday behavior and experiences.
From the webpage: "Journal of Mundane Behavior, co-hosted by the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Millersville University and the Department of Sociology and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Fullerton, is a blind peer-reviewed scholarly and publicly-oriented journal devoted to the study of the "unmarked" -- those aspects of our everyday lives that typically go unnoticed by us, both as academics and as everyday individuals".
From the webpage: "Journal of Mundane Behavior, co-hosted by the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Millersville University and the Department of Sociology and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Fullerton, is a blind peer-reviewed scholarly and publicly-oriented journal devoted to the study of the "unmarked" -- those aspects of our everyday lives that typically go unnoticed by us, both as academics and as everyday individuals".
Quotes
- What sorts of subjects will make the cut? "If it's inconsequential in nature, it will fit," says Myron Orleans, a professorProfessorA professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of sociologySociologySociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
at Cal StateCalifornia State UniversityThe California State University is a public university system in the state of California. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the...
at FullertonFullerton, CaliforniaFullerton is a city located in northern Orange County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 135,161.It was founded in 1887 by George and Edward Amerige and named for George H. Fullerton, who secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway...
and one of the journal's co-editors. He'll also settle for the "ordinary," the "habitual," and the "quotidian" -- anything, he says, that "apparently has no significance beyond itself." His premise, naturally, is that the opposite is true: that the overlooked trivia of, say, everyday conversationConversationConversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people who are following rules of etiquette.Conversation analysis is a branch of sociology which studies the structure and organization of human interaction, with a more specific focus on conversational...
, workplace behavior, or familyFamilyIn human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
life can illuminate how powerPower (sociology)Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to...
and conformity shape social relationshipInterpersonal relationshipAn interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...
s. — The Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 October 1999 - All around us are ordinary phenomena that can astound us if only we attend to them with the seriousness they do not typically receive: letters and letter-writing, street scenes, routine family life, artistic and cinematic depictions of how we live our lives, everyday work and commercial situations, sociable occasions, nonprofessional sports activities, transportation contexts, venues of legal and political action, viewing televised entertainment, consuming information from various media, and so on. The study of the extreme, outlandish, and "profane" aspects of late 20th century existence has been well-developed and has given rise to many useful theoretical and research tools. Here, we want to turn these analytic tools to the level of everyday life, to examine in microscopic and graphic detail the more mundane, habitual, and quotidian aspects of our existence - including how we define what is "mundane". These unnoticed, unmarked aspects of our lives are often the most political and yet depoliticized, and it is one of the goals of this journal to expose these processes. — taken from JMB's mission statement