way of life
The expression lifestyle or lifestyle describes the way in which people shape their everyday lives in a practical way.
term
The term lifestyle is used in a wide variety of connotations . With a view to medical topics, people speak of a “healthy” or “unhealthy” lifestyle, may ask about a “ befitting ” lifestyle of certain groups in society or, with religious intentions, are interested in what a “godly” lifestyle is. What the word usage has in common is that it addresses a more actively creative (→ leadership ) approach to one's own life.
In science, and especially in sociology , the term lifestyle is traditionally closely linked to Max Weber's work on the history of religion . His thesis that modern capitalism, in addition to its purely economic and technical foundations, is also based on a specific work and professional ethic ( Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism ) has become famous . According to Weber, this is based on religious values ( above all in Protestantism and especially in Calvinism ), which induce people to strive for a "methodical lifestyle" geared towards efficiency and success (especially at work).
Even at Weber, lifestyle is differentiated from the question of the specific “ lifestyle ” of certain groups, especially in the case of established classes. What is meant is how a way of life is stylized in everyday actions with symbolic forms of expression (e.g. clothing, living space furnishings, status symbols) in order to demonstrate belonging to a group and to distance oneself from other groups or to exclude them.
Research relating to Weber has not consciously registered this difference between the two terms for a long time (among other things, because the American Weber research translated lifestyle as "lifestyle" and thus mixed both terms). Only in a more recent German research direction from the field of subject-oriented sociology was this difference taken up again in a targeted manner, which then used the term “everyday life” as a departure from “lifestyle” (as well as from the Marxist concept of “way of life” and the term “ life world ”) the phenomenology , or at Habermas coined) and empirically in extensive research applying an end. The term now stands for an established field of research that is being considered alongside sociological lifestyle research.
From the point of view of Niklas Luhmann's sociological systems theory , Jan V. Wirth presented a theory of lifestyle in society in 2014 that describes lifestyle as an arrangement of inclusion (inclusion, participation) and exclusion (exclusion, non-participation).
In the lifestyle of people, according to Wolf Rainer Wendt's eco-social approach , they use ways and means, time and material and immaterial resources. From the point of view of social and health care, the economy of lifestyle (Nomos, Baden-Baden 2017) discussed: individually and together, life is lived within the framework of conditions and in dynamic interrelationship between personal services of general interest, social arrangements and public services of general interest.
Everyday lifestyle
As everyday life of everyday practical context of all sociological activities defined by people in their various areas of life (employment, family, leisure, education, political and civic engagement, etc.). The subject of the concept developed in the context of Munich's subject-oriented sociology is thus the entire active life of individuals, but not in its entire length (as is the subject of biography or life course research), but rather in its breadth . So the subject is not diachrony , i. H. the long-term course of life (which, however, is an important background and vanishing point of lifestyle), but the synchrony of everyday life, which is of course subject to changes over time.
What is of less interest here is the specific diversity of the individual activities (such as is investigated by time budget research or time geography ) than the everyday context of people's activities. It is about the individual "arrangement of the various social arrangements" of people or the way in which the everyday life of people is kept together in the spheres of life that are relevant to them (with which one has to come to terms) - or in everyday language with one that is often heard Formulation: how to get your life "in line" or "under the hat".
From a sociological point of view, this system of everyday life is not given socially and more or less passively adopted, but rather it is an active construction of those affected. Nevertheless, everyday life only "belongs" to the people to a limited extent (just as it is usually only a limited conscious construction). Rather, it has a structural intrinsic logic that is tied to the subject but only partially controllable , which is a central subject of knowledge of lifestyle research. In this intrinsic logic, lifestyle fulfills important functions for the person (for example, relieving action decisions) as well as for society (for example, the everyday practical mediation of various areas of society) and ultimately forms a mediation element in the tense relationship between the individual and society that has been largely neglected in sociology .
The way of life of a group or community, including the way of life in a family , arises from the way of life of the individual members and their interactions with one another.
The concept of everyday life was further developed with regard to various theoretical aspects (for example with the question of the importance of lifestyle for the construction of people's identity , cf. Behringer) and empirically investigated in a large number of groups and in relation to a variety of issues.
The concept of everyday life found particular attention in the work of the founder of critical psychology, Klaus Holzkamp (1927–1995). Shortly before his death, he took up the approach of everyday life and tried to use it as the basis for a "subject-scientific basic concept" he was striving for. However, this remained a fragment.
Lifestyle from the perspective of medicine
A large-scale study in 2012 showed: The so-called “big four risk factors ” - smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and / or cholesterol levels - have an unexpectedly strong influence on the risk of suffering a stroke or heart attack . According to the study, just one of these factors can increase the normal risk by about ten times. The probability that a person to whom none of the risk factors apply will have a heart attack in the course of their life is less than five percent. The individual risk of heart attack and stroke has only been estimated for the next five or ten years. Many people drastically underestimate their risk of cardiovascular disease .
See also
- Letter of James # Leadership
- Golden Rule
- Life in abundance
- Art of living
- life quality
- Lifeworld orientation
literature
Lifestyle at Max Weber:
- Max Weber : Economy and Society . Outline of understanding sociology. Tübingen: Mohr, 1972, first in 1921.
- Max Weber: The business ethics of the world religions . In: ders. Collected essays on the sociology of religion. Tübingen: Mohr, 1986, first 1920.
- Max Weber: The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism . In: ders. Collected essays on the sociology of religion. Tübingen: Mohr, 1986, first 1920.
- Wilhelm Hennis : Max Weber's question. Tübingen: Mohr, 1987.
- Wolfgang Schluchter : Religion and Lifestyle (2 vol.). Frankfurt a. M .: Suhrkamp, 1988.
Lifestyle at Klaus Holzkamp:
- Klaus Holzkamp : Everyday lifestyle as a basic subject-scientific concept . The Argument 212, pp. 817-846, 1995.
- Klaus Holzkamp: Psychology: Self-understanding about the reasons for action in everyday life . Forum Kritische Psychologie 36, pp. 7–212, 1996.
Literature on "everyday life" in general:
- Luise Behringer: Lifestyle as identity work. Man in the chaos of modern everyday life . Frankfurt a. M. / New York: Campus, 1998.
- Karin Jurczyk / Maria S. Rerrich, MS (Eds.): The work of everyday life. Contributions to a sociology of everyday life . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1993.
- Werner Kudera / G. Günter Voss (ed.): Lifestyle and society. Contributions to the concept and empiricism of everyday life . Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 2000.
- Kaspar Kristensen / Ernst screw: Conduct of Everyday Life . Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology 2014, pp 291-293.
- Ernst screw / Charlotte Hoholdt (eds.): Psychology and the Conduct of Everyday Life . London: Taylor & Francis 2015
- Project group “Everyday Life” (Ed.): Everyday Life. Arrangements between traditionality and modernization . Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1995. (online, PDF)
- G. Günter Voss: Lifestyle as work. About the autonomy of the person in everyday life in society . Stuttgart: Enke / Lucius & Lucius, 1991.
- G. Günter Voss / Margit Weihrich (eds.): Day in - day out New contributions to the sociology of everyday life (= work and life in transition. Series of publications on the subject-oriented sociology of work and the work society, Vol. 1). Munich, Mering: R. Hampp, 2001.
- Margit Weihrich / G. Günter Voss (eds.): Day by day. Everyday life as a problem - lifestyle as a solution? New contributions to the sociology of everyday life 2. Munich, Mering: R. Hampp, 2002.
- Jan V. Wirth: The way of life of society - outline of a general theory. Springer, 2014, ISBN 978-3-658-07706-8 ; ISBN 978-3-658-07707-5 (eBook); online at: Springer VS
- Jan V. Wirth: Inclusion with the iMap. Social Work Berlin, No. 9, pp. 342–348, 2014, online at: Social Work
Literature on "everyday life" for individual groups:
- Alma Demszky von der Hagen: Everyday Society. Networks of everyday life in a large urban housing estate . Munich, Mering: R. Hampp, 2006.
- Sylvia Dietmaier-Jebara: Image of society and lifestyle. Sociopolitical notions of order in the East German transformation process . Munich, Mering: R. Hampp, 2005.
- Julia Egbringhoff: Constantly by myself. The way of life of one-person self-employed in East Germany . Munich, Mering: R. Hampp, 2007.
- Norbert Huchler: We pilots. Navigation through the fluid world of work . Berlin: edition sigma, 2013
- Werner Kudera / G. Günter Voss (eds.): "Penneralltag". A sociological study by Georg Jochum on the lifestyle of "tramps" in Munich . Mering, Munich: R. Hampp, 1996.
- Morgenroth, Sissy / Schindler, Stephanie: Everyday fire service. A sociological study of the lifestyle of firefighters on a 24-hour watch . Munich, Mering: R. Hampp, 2012.
- Margit Weihrich: Course regulations. A qualitative panel study of everyday life in the East German transformation process . Pfaffenweiler: Centaurus, 1998.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jan V. Wirth: The way of life of society. Outline of a general theory. Springer VS, 2015, ISBN 978-3658077068 .
- ↑ Alma von der Hagen-Demszky: Familial educational worlds: Theoretical perspectives and empirical explorations. (PDF; 683 kB) (No longer available online.) In: Materials on the subject of family and education I. DJI, October 2006, archived from the original on October 20, 2011 ; Retrieved February 8, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 50 ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The research team published the results of the study in the New England Journal of Medicine .zeit.de: Lifestyle has more influence on heart attack risk than expected
