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Understanding Home: A Critical Review of the Literature
Abstract
In recent years there has been a proliferation of writing on the meaning of home within the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, human geography, history, architecture and philosophy. Although many researchers now understand home as a multidimensional concept and acknowledge the presence of and need for multidisciplinary research in the field, there has been little sustained reflection and critique of the multidisciplinary field of home research and the diverse, even contradictory meanings of this term. This paper brings together and examines the dominant and recurring ideas about home represented in the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. It raises the question whether or not home is (a) place(s), (a) space(s), feeling(s), practices, and/or an active state of state of being in the world? Home is variously described in the literature as conflated with or related to house, family, haven, self, gender, and journeying. Many authors also consider notions of being-at-home, creating or making home and the ideal home. In an effort to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations about the meaning and experience of home each of these themes are briefly considered in this critical literature review.
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“Mallett (2004) argues that ou se se of ho e occupies a particular place in the Anglo European imaginary, with home conceptualised as an intimate, private space, associated with comfort and belonging.However, when disrupted by violence, or by other experiences that unsettle this sense of belonging, home can, Mallett argues, become a space of marginalisation and estrangement.”
From Children’s embodied experience of living with domestic violence: “I’d go into my panic, and shake, really bad” (2016) · cites this paper as Mallett (2004)
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Metadata
- Authors
- Mallett, S.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Mallett, Shelley
- Venue
- The Sociological Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-02
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 62-89
- ISSN
- 0038-0261 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-954X
- OpenAlex
- W1502038307
- Cited by
- 1,483
- References
- 94
- Citations by year
- 2026: 72 · 2025: 114 · 2024: 102 · 2023: 96 · 2022: 123 · 2021: 83 · 2020: 97 · 2019: 99 · 2018: 94 · 2017: 84 · 2016: 73 · 2015: 73 · 2014: 57 · 2013: 73 · 2012: 50
- FWCI
- 65.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Place Attachment and Urban Studies
- Social Sciences › Geography, Planning and Development › Spatial and Cultural Studies
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- home, meaning of home, houses, family, havens, self, gender, journeying, ideal home
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