Archived seminar
11 March 2015: Too close for comfort? Shared living arrangements and everyday domestic intimacy (CISC Seminar Series)
Professor Sue Heath from University of Manchester
At 13:00 in .
Abstract:
Increasing numbers of people in the UK are experiencing shared living arrangements at some point in their lives, whether through choice or in response to limited housing options. This paper explores the nature of everyday domestic intimacy in different types of shared housing, from housing co-ops and cohousing schemes through to joint tenancies in the private rented sector and private lodging arrangements. Drawing on Belk's distinction between 'sharing out' and 'sharing in', it considers how temporal, spatial, economic and ideological practices variously interact to either foster or discourage shared intimacy and communality in shared living arrangements.Sue Heath is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester and a Co-Director of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives. She is currently leading an ESRC-funded project, 'Under the Same Roof', which is exploring the everyday relational practices of shared living arrangements across the lifecourse. This builds on Sue's earlier work on shared living arrangements specifically amongst 20- and 30-somethings, carried out at the end of the 1990s, reflecting her broader interests in domestic and housing transitions across the lifecourse.
This event is open to the general public.