Home extensions in the United Kingdom: space, time, and practice

Hand, Martin and Shove, Elizabeth and Southerton, Dale (2007) Home extensions in the United Kingdom: space, time, and practice. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 25 (4). pp. 668-681. ISSN 0263-7758

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Abstract

This paper begins with two observations: that UK homes appear to have accumulated increasing numbers of domestic technologies, yet new houses are smaller, on average, than those built before 1980. The spatial pressures placed on homes that result from the accumulation of technologies are explored by drawing upon forty household interviews which enquired into the domestic organisation of kitchen and bathroom technologies and practices. Many households have responded to such spatial pressures by extending or reformulating their domestic spaces: such that kitchens are becoming increasingly multifunctional spaces and bathrooms are multiplying. It is argued that these trends are not simply driven by an unstoppable tide of material possession but reflect context-specific arrangements related to the temporal and ideological structuring of domestic practices. Technologies and practices coevolve with the result that new demands are made on homes-the commodities and objects with which we live our lives influence our experience of space and the value placed on different physical configurations. Domestic technologies are therefore implicated in the structure and reproduction of practice and hence in the choreography of things and people in time and space.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/sociologyandgender
Subjects:
?? sociologyenvironmental science (miscellaneous)geography, planning and developmenthm sociology ??
ID Code:
53131
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
15 Mar 2012 09:10
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 12:41