Private Dwelling: Contemplating the Use of Housing

Peter King

Aug 2004 · Routledge

About this ebook

Housing is something that is deeply personal to us. It offers us privacy and security and allows us to be intimate with those we are close to. This book considers the nature of privacy but also 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 Dwelling offers 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.

About the author

Peter King is a pioneer in the area of social philosophy and housing. His main research interest has been to differentiate how housing is used at the individual level from the manner it is perceived as a social or collective entity. He is the author of five previous books, which explore various aspects of housing, including A Social Philosophy of Housing (2003). He is a Reader in Housing and Social Philosophy at the Centre for Comparative Housing Research, De Montfort University.