House, home and identity from a consumption perspective

What does a home signify to its residents? What priorities determine the choice of a house? What makes a house a home? How and why do residents maintain and decorate their homes? These are some of the questions that have been posed in 13 qualitative in‐depth interviews with families living in older villas and in standard houses since the 1970s. The interviews demonstrate how residential neighbourhoods are associated with different symbolic values and how these values influence the choice of home. A lifestyle‐concept based on modern class structures is easily found in this material and shows how social structures can be retrieved from the urban geography. However, home decoration and furnishing shows a less structured and more individualistic self‐expressive approach to the lifestyle‐concept in terms of home and identity.

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