Everyday events involve everybody. And although they are taken for granted, such events allow people to maintain continuity in their lives and define their identities. Since everybody participates in everyday events, they seem obvious, ordinary, unworthy of note; the reality of small things we deal with daily is usually considered the opposite of passion and beauty. In addressing the issue of the quotidian, this book emphasises the crucial nature of its functions, construction processes, and structure. Seen in this way, the everyday appears as the reality of stability, a mandatory framework for development and adaptation. This is particularly true in childhood and in old age, when, for opposite reasons, experience needs to be organized in familiar, recurring, stable and above all socially shared forms, in order to recognize and manage it. This innovative text addresses the importance of everyday life, a veritable resource for mental well-being and identity-building.

Francesca Emiliani teaches Social Psychology at the University of Bologna.

Portuguese rights for Brazil sold to Editora Senac So Paulo.