Cold feet and empty fridges? The meanings of home and home-making practices of solo-living people in the Czech Republic.
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | In the study presented in this chapter, we focused on how is the sense and place of home perceived and created by people who are living solo – those who form a one-member household for at least one year. Inspired by and discussing with some of the conclusions from J.-C. Kaufman´s book The Single Woman and the Fairytale Prince, we tried to empirically grasp the theoretical triad of “meaning – practice – materiality”. It led us to different questions in the open-ended interviews and short-term observations – not only we were asking what does home (in general as an idea, or in particular, as a place, house or flat) mean to a person, but also what he or she does, how, why and what he or she does not, what were the changes, ruptures and their reasons, if they are communicable. The chapter is based on rich narrative and visual data, and focuses especially on two most mundane objects - a bed and a fridge - aiming to better understand the meaning of home for solo-living people as it is constructed by various practices and in relation to materiality of their homes within wider cultural and social context. |
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