Home

by A. Blunt

‘Home’ is a significant geographical and social concept. It is not only a three-dimensional structure, a shelter, but it is also a matrix of social relations and has wide symbolic and ideological meanings; home can be feelings of belonging or of alienation; feelings of home can be stretched across the world, connected to a nation or attached to a house; the spaces and imaginaries of home are central to the construction of people’s identities. An essential guide to studying home and domesticity, this book locates ‘home’ within wider traditions of thought. It analyzes different sources, methods and examples in both historical and contemporary contexts; ranging from homes on the American frontier and imperial domesticity in British India, to Australian suburbs, multicultural London, and South Asian diasporic homes. The core argument of the book has three main parts that cut across each of its Each chapter includes text boxes and exercises and is well illustrated with cartoons, line drawings, and photographs. Outlining the social relations shaping, (and being influenced by) the geographies of home; and the imaginative as well as material importance of home, this book will be a valuable reference for students of geography, sociology, gender studies, and those interested in the home and domesticity.

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2005

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a light read. It is a human geography academic textbook but I hoped it might provide me with the thought-provoking issues about how we construct our homes that I had been looking for. Well, it did and it didn’t. It didn’t really address the personal issues around choosing a home I was looking for (maybe there is a psychology text book which would satisfy my need) but it was thought-provoking in getting me to think about some of the wider issues of home - such as how people who move from one country and culture to another represent that in their homes to the power dynamics between state and individual impact on the concept of home.
Home is both a physical location and a set of feelings. Home is a process of creating and understanding dwelling and belonging. Home is lived and imagined. Some of what I was looking for.