O'Mahony, L F (2013) The meaning of home: From theory to practice. International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, 5(2), pp. 156-171. ISSN 17561469
Abstract
Purpose: This paper aims to analyse the development and application of the conceptual framework within which housing scholars can think, talk about and advocate for "home". Design/methodology/approach: It reflects on the theoretical progress that has been made in embedding a legal concept of home in the last decade, and identifies opportunities for this scholarship to support critical engagement with laws and policies that give content to home meanings. Findings: A key goal for the concept of home is to help us to think about problems differently, by highlighting important issues flowing from the human relationship with home; with the ways in which the idea of home is present or absent in legal responses to home issues. A focus on home meanings enables us to examine questions which are not always deemed "relevant" to legal proceedings, for example, the human, social and personal costs of displacement and dispossession. The concept of home provides the vocabulary, and the theoretical framework, for articulating these human claims more coherently. It enables us to identify those problems in need of policy attention; to develop a narrative to express them; and to generate support for solving them. Originality/value: Ten years after the publication of "The meaning of home", this article reflects on the development of the legal concept of home, and the range of contemporary housing issues to which its applications are both relevant and significant.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | concept of home; financial value; housing; housing advocacy; law; non-financial meanings |
| Index terms: | meaning, methodology, narrative, publication, housing, conceptual framework |
| Subjects: | construction type, research dissemination and communication, theoretical framing, research methods, qualitative and interpretive research, sociology |
| Topics: | Construction Technology, Research Practice, Information Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here