The Everyday life space and the making of meaning

QC 20241029

Abstract

The suburbs' share of metropolitan space is increasing. More and more people live in suburban settlements outside the traditional inner city. For many, today's city life therefore means daily movements across municipal borders, to get to work, friends, family and leisure activities. Everyday life is lived in a network of interconnected nodes – in an everyday life space. This study examines how people's everyday lives are affected by this daily travel. The overall aim of the study is to contribute to increased concretization of social sustainability in regional planning by deepening the knowledge of this impact, based on the obstacles and possibilities of everyday travel. Through a qualitative method consisting of interviews with residents of Barkarbystaden, which is one of Sweden's largest ongoing development areas, the study examines experiences and reflections on everyday travel. These are analyzed based on a theoretical framework that draws on the French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefèbvre's spatial triad theory, which contains a critical approach to everyday life in the modern city, with a focus on the actors and actions that create the urban space; we as humans are influenced by each other and by space through our everyday practice, our thoughts and feelings. The spatial triad is used in the study in a similar way as David Harvey’s development of the theory, dividing the triad into three dimensions to conceptualize the time-space. An important starting point in the study is to see people's own reflections on their everyday life as a possibility for change regarding how regional planning can contribute to a socially sustainable everyday life. People's everyday life and everyday travel is the aspect of social sustainability that this study focuses on. The study examines the making of meaning linked to the spatiality of everyday life, in order to gain knowledge about people's experience of the meaning of what they do and access in their daily life. Everyday life is greatly influenced by how good the accessibility is to everyday target points such as social relationships and other significant meaning-making activities. The study’s results show that in the concretization of social sustainability in a regional context, an understanding of the place's specific everyday life space is needed; a knowledge about how a place is connected to its surroundings materially and socially, which accessibilities are important and why. This includes the importance of memories and dreams related to everyday life. A significant meaningful aspect of everyday life is social life. The study provides basis for understanding how social relationships take place in everyday life. The results show that residents feel that there is a lack of space and time in everyday life for leisure and friends, i.e. the spheres outside of work that are not within the reproductive domain (care and family duties, etc.), and that a meaningful leisure time for many is dependent on access to a car. The study's conclusions emphasize the importance of increased awareness of the lived space – that is, feelings connected to places and persons – in the planning of the city. This both broadened and deepened qualitative knowledge is about why a destination needs to be reached, and not only how, as in most traditional (quantitative) traffic planning regarding routes and means of transport. The accessibility to the making of meaning becomes central in this approach, and not the mobility in itself. This highlights the need for a more integrated way of looking at urban development, where housing, social life as well as transport and travel are taken care of. In terms of proposals for future research, the study raises several questions about how the various parts of everyday life is given space and time in the city life, as well as how they can be balanced.  

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