Dust: A study in sociological miniaturism

Following the perspective of "sociological miniaturism," proposed by Stolte, Fine, and Cook (2001), we examine the significance of dust in social life in order to examine the reverberations of the micro-features of everyday life on social structure. Through the examination of the routine, the unexamined, and the commonplace, we hope to gain some insight on how the taken-for-granted aspects of lived experience fit into the larger social order. Dust, by virtue of its "smallness," provides a window through which we can explore social structural issues using microsociological analysis. Specifically we examine how dust and techniques for its control are linked to issues of gender, work, political economy, and nation.