In this insightful and pathbreaking reflection on 'doing nothing', Billy Ehn and Orvar Lofgren take us on a fascinating tour of what is happening when, to all appearances, absolutely nothing is happening. Sifting through a wide range of examples drawn from literature, published ethnographies, and firsthand research, they probe the unobserved moments in our daily lives - waiting for a bus, daydreaming by the window, performing a routine task - and illuminate these 'empty' times as full of significance. Creative, insightful, and profound, "The Secret World of Doing Nothing" leads us to rethink the ordinary and find meaning in today's hypermodern reality.

In this insightful and pathbreaking reflection on 'doing nothing', Billy Ehn and Orvar Lofgren take us on a fascinating tour of what is happening when, to all appearances, absolutely nothing is happening. Sifting through a wide range of examples drawn from literature, published ethnographies, and firsthand research, they probe the unobserved moments in our daily lives - waiting for a bus, daydreaming by the window, performing a routine task - and illuminate these 'empty' times as full of significance. Creative, insightful, and profound, "The Secret World of Doing Nothing" leads us to rethink the ordinary and find meaning in today's hypermodern reality.

The numerous tasks and routines that shape our daily existence can seem mundane, even invisible-and yet they play an extremely powerful role in structuring and reproducing society. Exploring Everyday Life casts light on these so-called trivialities, serving as both a guide to the invisible world of the everyday and an instruction manual for first-time explorers. Ehn, Lofgren, and Wilk demonstrate how to use a broad array of ethnographic tools to discover, map, and document new and unexplored territories and guide readers through the process of cultural analysis. Their concrete examples shed light on how a study or paper assignment can evolve and point to how cultural analysis of everyday life can be practically applied in business, government, and other arenas outside of academia.

The numerous tasks and routines that shape our daily existence can seem mundane, even invisible-and yet they play an extremely powerful role in structuring and reproducing society. Exploring Everyday Life casts light on these so-called trivialities, serving as both a guide to the invisible world of the everyday and an instruction manual for first-time explorers. Ehn, Lofgren, and Wilk demonstrate how to use a broad array of ethnographic tools to discover, map, and document new and unexplored territories and guide readers through the process of cultural analysis. Their concrete examples shed light on how a study or paper assignment can evolve and point to how cultural analysis of everyday life can be practically applied in business, government, and other arenas outside of academia.