Private Dwelling: Contemplating the Use of Housing

What do housing professionals, architects, estate agents and town planners do when they go home at night? Presumably they do the same as the rest of the population. They indulge in that ubiquitous and unique activity called dwelling. They use the housing planned, designed, managed, bought and sold by professionals for uses specific to themselves: and while they are doing it, so is everybody else. Housing is something that is deeply personal to us. It offers us privacy, security and allows us to be intimate with those we are close to. This book considers this private nature by looking at the nature of privacy and how we choose to share our dwelling. The book discusses the manner in which we talk about our housing, how it manifests and assuages our anxieties and desires and how it helps us come to terms with loss. Private Dwellingoffers a deeply original take on housing. The book proceeds through a series of speculations, using philosophical analysis and critique, personal anecdote,film criticism, social and cultural theory and policy analysis to unpick the subjective nature of housing as a personal place where we can be sure of ourselves. The book will be of interest to students, academics and researchers in housing, architecture, planning as well as social theory and philosophy.

Peter King is a Reader in Housing and Social Philosophy at the Centre for Comparative Housing Research, De Montfort University.