Home: A Complex Field

London, UK | November 2-3, 2015

Exploring the Relationship between Home Environments and Family and Societal Wellbeing

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This Experts Meeting, sponsored by STI and organized by The Home Renaissance Foundation, considered the home from various perspectives: public health; philosophy of science; law; sociology; human geography; philosophy, ethics and anthropology; and economics.

Human beings have been creating home environments for thousands of years. It is part of their culture and of their story: both its source and memory. A deeper understanding of what a home is, and why everybody looks for a home, can help us to identify the right categories to understand relationships and their relevance in society. We thus seek to explore the epistemological and ontological status of the home in structuring human behavior and social capacities. This understanding will help us overcome reductionist accounts of the home and of the work that is performed in that environment (i.e. merely functional). New categories should consequently be identified as they have often been in the fields of sociology, biology, etc. 

Discussants

Celeste Torio – Catholic University of America
(respondent to Burns)

Marta Bertolaso – Campus Bio Medico
(respondent to Marcos)

Phil Davis - NIESR
(respondent to Lastra)

David Walker - University of Birmingham
(respondent to Regnerus)

Nancy Lozano-Garcia
(respondent to d’Entremont)

Remei Agulles - Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
(respondent to Patrao Neves)

Sophia Aguirre – Catholic University of America
(respondent to Zamagni)

Principal Inquiries

  • Environment & Well-being. The Impact of the Family & Work of the Home on the Environment. Cognitive and Social Development.
  • Relational Dimensions of Housework. 
  • Legal Frameworks for the Work of the Home 
  • Influence of the Home and Family in Social Dynamics 
  • Spatial Relationality & Domesticity 
  • Self & Others. The Relationship between the Individual, Family and Culture 
  • The Home and Economics Paradigm

Speakers

Harry Burns - University of Strathclyde.
The Impact of Adverse Family Environments on the Cognitive and Social Development of Children

Alfredo Marcos - University of Valladolid
What is a Home? An Ontological Inquiry

Rosa Lastra - Queen Mary University
Pension provision, care and dignity in old age. Legal Frameworks for Protecting the Work of the Home

Mark Regnerus - University of Texas at Austin
Intergenerational Transmission of Marriage and Relationship Legacy

Alban d’Entremont - University of Navarra
Human Perceptions and Behaviors with respect to the Spaces and Functions of the Home from the Perspective of Human Geography

Maria de Ceu Patrao Neves - Universidade dos Açores
Self & Others. The Relationship between the Individual, Family and Culture

Stefano Zamagni - University of Bologna
The Home and Economic Paradigms