Orvar Löfgren

On Holiday

Orvar Löfgren

Löfgren takes us on a tour of the Western holiday world and shows how two centuries of «learning to be a tourist» have shaped our own ways of vacationing. We see how fashions in destinations have changed through the years, with popular images (written, drawn, painted, and later photographed) teaching the tourist what to look for and how to experience it. Travelers present and future will never see their cruises, treks, ecotours, round-the-world journeys, or trips to the vacation cottage or condo in quite the same way again. All our land-, sea-, and mindscapes will be the richer for Löfgren's insights.

The Secret World of Doing Nothing

Orvar Löfgren

In this insightful and pathbreaking reflection on «doing nothing,» Billy Ehn and Orvar Löfgren 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, <i>The Secret World of Doing Nothing</i> leads us to rethink the ordinary and find meaning in today’s hypermodern reality.