Talking about beauty: a study of everyday aesthetics among low-income citizens of Milan.

Ruggerone, Lucia; Jenkings, Neil

Abstract

This paper reports on research undertaken into the aesthetics of the everyday. As well as the subject matter of aesthetic philosophy, art criticism and of the sociology of art, beauty, and beautiful are of course very ordinary matters too. To shed light on the meanings of beauty as used in everyday settings and in natural language, we use the data collected in a study conducted with a group of low-income residents of the city of Milan. In this study we were interested in analyzing their lifestyle in terms of their relationship with aesthetics, i.e., with 'beautiful' objects and/or experiences. Participants' self-reported aesthetic appreciations suggest that conceptions of 'beauty' are used as devices to narrate pieces of identity, memories, experiences, etc. Their aesthetic judgements take on an anthropological function, creating a framework of meanings that help the participants make sense of the world of objects and of their own lives with/through them.

Citation

RUGGERONE, L. and JENKINGS, N. 2015. Talking about beauty: a study of everyday aesthetics among low-income citizens of Milan. Symbolic interaction [online], 38(3), pages 393-412. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.166

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 29, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Jun 30, 2015
• Publication Date: Aug 31, 2015
• Deposit Date: Mar 8, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 1, 2017
• Journal: Symbolic interaction
• Print ISSN: 0195-6086
• Electronic ISSN: 1533-8665
• Publisher: Wiley Open Access
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 393-412
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.166
• Keywords: Beauty; Poverty; Aesthetics; Art; Objects; Lifeworld
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/1418