Grace Bonham
︎ Podcast Link
Student Homemaking Dynamics
An investigation and analysis of material culture, identity and the politics of space in private rented student flats.
An investigation and analysis of material culture, identity and the politics of space in private rented student flats.
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Considering the relationship between home and identity, it is important to acknowledge the multifaceted impacts of home on its inhabitants. ‘Home’ as viewed by human geographers Alison Blunt and Robyn Dowling, is both mental and physical, ‘materially created’, using objects as a physical formation of the relationships within the home and a means of communicating cultural meaning. Emphasising that the imaginative experience of home 'constitutes identities’, and within shared spaces, identities are ‘articulated through relations of power’, I argue that these relationships can be considered through the use of cognitive mapping and analysis using the politics of space. It is also acknowledged that home can provide security and shelter allowing for self-expression, though home can also be ‘oppressive and alienating’, depending on social divisions. Thus, it is clear that at home there is a complex and important relationship between identity and belonging.
In this study, I consider university students' relationship with home, and its influence on navigating and negotiating their adult identities. As a demographic, students are in a vulnerable position regarding the stability of home, this precarity affects how students use material culture as a means of homemaking. Traditionally, conceptions of placemaking consider homemaking as a long-term process, while for students, it is complex and linked to transitory living.
The spatial characteristics of home requires an understanding of the site and how its materiality is shaped by emotions and belonging. Blurred boundaries in the home, and connections between public and private spaces shape our experiences of others’ identity in the home and how it interacts with our own. By understanding the fluctuation of spatial boundaries and how this manifests in the atmosphere formed in the home, we can consider how relationships are materialised in space.
This dissertation focuses on the everyday life-worlds in a sample of final year university students in London. It aims to understand the negotiations between homemaking, material culture and identity within the student household. These eclectic combinations of objects and mementos embrace varied aspects of identity including, sexuality, culture, gender, political affiliations, and relationships. Demonstrating that expressions of identity can be formed by the display of possessions, I argue that material culture can be used as a tool to mediate boundaries within shared spaces, resulting in the formation of collective identity within the home.
The method I draw from takes the form of a mixed approach, using semi-structured interviews along with visual material interviewees create in our sessions. The interview aims to gain an understanding from a range of mindsets and approaches to the home. I also draw on cognitive mapping, a process within which the interviewees create a visualisation of their mental model of a concept. All participants were asked to map and label the material culture in their home, to illustrate the spatial narratives – an approach also taken by Geographers Mark Holton and Mark Riley. This method allows me to understand students' perspectives of their environment, and how the ‘artefacts’ in them facilitates our comprehension of student identities, and how they are framed within our sociocultural landscape.
The interviewees are all UCL students, in their final year of their undergraduate degree, living in London. Interviewees are studying diverse disciplines including chemistry, geography and politics, and include three international students and three UK students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. I aim to gain an understanding from a range of mindsets and approaches to the student home. The research draws on four different case studies (flats): Flat 1with Oscar and Louise living alongside myself : Flat 2, where Florence and Ryan cohabit: Flat 3, with Emily interviewed and Flat 4 with Aisha interviewed. All interviewees' names are pseudonymised to maintain anonymity.
To Illustrate this complex argument, the essay is presented in three chapters, each with its own distinct theme that draws from the interview material. The first chapter looks at students’ use of material culture as a means of self-assertion of identity, focused on the scale of the individual. The second chapter focuses on the influence of material culture on the formation and negotiation of a collective household identity. The final chapter discusses how material culture can contribute to marginalisation within households, and the ways in which material culture affects and is effected by the changing dynamics within a physical space.
In this study, I consider university students' relationship with home, and its influence on navigating and negotiating their adult identities. As a demographic, students are in a vulnerable position regarding the stability of home, this precarity affects how students use material culture as a means of homemaking. Traditionally, conceptions of placemaking consider homemaking as a long-term process, while for students, it is complex and linked to transitory living.
The spatial characteristics of home requires an understanding of the site and how its materiality is shaped by emotions and belonging. Blurred boundaries in the home, and connections between public and private spaces shape our experiences of others’ identity in the home and how it interacts with our own. By understanding the fluctuation of spatial boundaries and how this manifests in the atmosphere formed in the home, we can consider how relationships are materialised in space.
This dissertation focuses on the everyday life-worlds in a sample of final year university students in London. It aims to understand the negotiations between homemaking, material culture and identity within the student household. These eclectic combinations of objects and mementos embrace varied aspects of identity including, sexuality, culture, gender, political affiliations, and relationships. Demonstrating that expressions of identity can be formed by the display of possessions, I argue that material culture can be used as a tool to mediate boundaries within shared spaces, resulting in the formation of collective identity within the home.
The method I draw from takes the form of a mixed approach, using semi-structured interviews along with visual material interviewees create in our sessions. The interview aims to gain an understanding from a range of mindsets and approaches to the home. I also draw on cognitive mapping, a process within which the interviewees create a visualisation of their mental model of a concept. All participants were asked to map and label the material culture in their home, to illustrate the spatial narratives – an approach also taken by Geographers Mark Holton and Mark Riley. This method allows me to understand students' perspectives of their environment, and how the ‘artefacts’ in them facilitates our comprehension of student identities, and how they are framed within our sociocultural landscape.
The interviewees are all UCL students, in their final year of their undergraduate degree, living in London. Interviewees are studying diverse disciplines including chemistry, geography and politics, and include three international students and three UK students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. I aim to gain an understanding from a range of mindsets and approaches to the student home. The research draws on four different case studies (flats): Flat 1with Oscar and Louise living alongside myself : Flat 2, where Florence and Ryan cohabit: Flat 3, with Emily interviewed and Flat 4 with Aisha interviewed. All interviewees' names are pseudonymised to maintain anonymity.
To Illustrate this complex argument, the essay is presented in three chapters, each with its own distinct theme that draws from the interview material. The first chapter looks at students’ use of material culture as a means of self-assertion of identity, focused on the scale of the individual. The second chapter focuses on the influence of material culture on the formation and negotiation of a collective household identity. The final chapter discusses how material culture can contribute to marginalisation within households, and the ways in which material culture affects and is effected by the changing dynamics within a physical space.