Comfort, Cleanliness and Convenience: The Social Organization of Normality (New Technologies / New Cultures) Book

Showers, heating, air-conditioning and clothes washing are now simply accepted as part of our normal, everyday lives. This was clearly not always the case. When and how did the power shower become de rigueur? What effect has air-conditioning had on the age-old Mediterranean siesta? And why do we now aspire to wash "whiter than white"? This intriguing book investigates these practices' evolving social significance and our views on their normality. Shove concludes that our "personal" hygiene habits are no longer as personal as we think. They are, in fact, increasingly imposed on us by a mass consumer culture and its ideas of the socially acceptable. The once-a-week bath has given way to the daily shower as the universal norm. These dramatic changes in our expectations of comfort, cleanliness, and convenience have, until now, largely gone unnoticed. This shrewd and engrossing analysis shows just how far the cultural meanings and practices of cleaning have eluded many of us.Read More