Moving Homes: From House to Nursing Home and the (Un-)Canniness of Being at Home

This article argues that home relates not so much to a fixed and clearly bounded spatial “being” but can be understood as a “becoming,” that is, a set of spatial and temporal practices and experiences that fabricate the (un-)canniness of what it means to be at home or not. The (un-)canniness of bein...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Space and culture 2009-05, Vol.12 (2), p.218-231
Main Authors: Schillmeier, Michael, Heinlein, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Emotions
Ethnography
Home
Housing
Long Term Care
Residential care
Technology
Time
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Summary:This article argues that home relates not so much to a fixed and clearly bounded spatial “being” but can be understood as a “becoming,” that is, a set of spatial and temporal practices and experiences that fabricate the (un-)canniness of what it means to be at home or not. The (un-)canniness of being at home refers to the mediating and altering relations of changing bodies, emotions, and things that enact the specificities that make up the very feelings and practices of being at home. By retracing the story of a male suffering from two strokes, the authors follow the process of moving from his private house to a nursing home. The ethnographic work presented here tries to highlight the very fragile contingency and normativity of such dynamics concerning the (un-)canniness of being at home.
ISSN:1206-3312
1552-8308
DOI:10.1177/1206331208330759