The Meaning of Home: A review of a complex concept


Julia Woodhall-Melnik, University of New Brunswick

In the housing literature, the concept of home differs from a physical structure of a house. Home refers to the socioemotional relationships that exist within a house structure, connection to place and an overall sense of belonging and wellbeing. Historically, home has been viewed as a positive place wherein occupants recharge and benefit from the privacy and the stability of place. More recently, feminist scholars grapple with the problematic nature of home for women, as it can be a place of danger, damage, and servitude. This creates a black and white dichotomy within the literature on home, wherein home is viewed as either bad or good. This presentation presents the findings of a literature review on the development of the concept of home over the past decade. The findings indicate that the concept of home is much greyer than initially presented and is too complex to be discussed as a binary. The implications of the development of a more complex and fluid concept to define home on housing scholarship and practice are discussed. This presentation concludes with a discussion of future areas of research that may contribute to the further development of the concept of home.

Non-presenting author: Tobin LeBlanc-Haley, University of New Brunswick

This paper will be presented at the following session: