More than just a ‘Home’ Understanding the Living Spaces of Families Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research Series, Vol. 25

Over time and space, sociology has given varying importance to the study of the house. The house is often a locus of special attention when a couple is formed, and the investments made in a neolocal residence constitute a complex social fact. There is much to be known about the importance of and the relationships between home and family. Rooted in diverse theoretical approaches and multi-method research projects, this edited collection provides a broad understanding of the house as a plural, diverse and meaningful space. Paying attention to specific occupational, gender and age patterns in home spaces, chapters also consider how digital technologies, including the 'smart home', as well as the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent 'turn to home' have impacted family life on a micro level. Exploring relationships between the family and the material and symbolic dimensions of the home, authors discuss the trajectory and composition of the household, the gendered division of labor, work-family and education-family dynamics, care work and more. Considering the ways in which a family socially constructs a home, this is a much-needed investigation into how the house, its architecture, spatial arrangements and internal and external divisions shape and reshape family relationships in the face of constant challenges and change.

Foreword; Rosalina Pisco Costa and Sampson Lee Blair Chapter 1. The Neoliberal Regime of Disappearance: Mothers Living with their Children in Canadian Motels; Melinda Vandenbeld Giles Chapter 2. The Pandemic Vacation Home: Media Framing of COVID-19 and Second Home Real Estate Morality Projects; Michelle Janning, Tate Kautzky, and Michelle Zhang Chapter 3. Women's Narratives: ICTs in the Family Household during (post-)Pandemic; Silvia Di Giuseppe Chapter 4. Maid’s Room: The Blurred Identity of Live-in Maids; Amanda Andrade Costa de Mendonça Lima Chapter 5. (Re)Making Home(s) on the Move: Sri Lankan Live-In Migrant Domestic Workers in Kuwait; Wasana Handapangoda Chapter 6. Zooming Home and Family Gatherings in Pandemic Times. Ritual, Memory, and Identity; Ana Rita Nunes da Silva and Rosalina Pisco Costa Chapter 7. The National Lockout: Impacts of Australia’s International Border Closure on Family Relationships and Notions of Citizenship; Simona Strungaru and Jo Coghlan Chapter 8. Contextual Factors of Electronic Media Exposure and their Effects on Parent-Infant Interactions in Latinx Families; Katie Lindekugel and Naja Ferjan Ramírez Chapter 9. Children Belong Nowhere: Discontinued Family Identity of the “Black Children” (Heihaizi) of China’s One-Child Policy; Jingxian Wang

Professional and scholarly

Rosalina Pisco Costa is Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Évora, Portugal. In 2012, she was distinguished with the Early-Stage Family Scholar Award by the Committee on Family Research of the International Sociological Association. Sampson Lee Blair is a Family Sociologist and Demographer at The State University of New York, Buffalo, USA. His research interests include parent-child relationships, mate selection, marriage and fertility.