The many faces of everyday life: Some challenges to the psychology of cultural practice

We address the issue of how cultural psychologies relate to human everyday life-worlds. Everyday life entails the extraordinary within the ordinary, and vice versa - often described as cultural practices. We present the case of an involuntary event - breaking a leg - with all its temporarily debilitating experiences. The person became involved in a series of new activities of meaning construction as a way of reorganizing her life during the recovery period. If cultural psychologies are to offer adequate explanations for emerging practices, the central role of personal agency needs to be restored into their general theoretical schemes. The cultural organization of human living includes the organizer - the person - who actively makes meanings in ever-new life contexts.