Affective familiarity and the experience of home : a phenomenological exploration

Abstract

This paper provides a phenomenological analysis of the emotional aspects of the experience of home. Researchers have studied home from several perspectives, but there is a need for a detailed phenomenological analysis of the emotional intentionality which underlies the meanings and experiences of home as an emotionally charged place. This paper provides novel conceptual tools for understanding the interrelation between home and its inhabitant’s personal identity by introducing the concept of ”feeling of ownness”. The relevance and meaning of this concept is demonstrated through experiential examples which illustrate how home can be experienced as one’s ”own”. Moreover, this paper discussess and complements Kim Dovey’s account of home which construes home as a spatial, temporal and socio-cultural “order”. The main result of this analysis is that the experience of home involves an element of afective familiarity, and that homes are structured around things that are personally signifcant for the experiencing subject.