In Dwelling: Implacability, Exclusion and Acceptance [Hardcover]

A 'dwelling', or the physical space we call a house, is full of meaning for us. It can be implacable, in that it can work for or against us, depending on how we are able to access and use it. This means that we have to learn to accept dwelling as it is and find some accommodation with our surrounding environment. This book develops a new approach to looking at dwelling and how we use it. It explores the manner in which we use housing to exclude others and so protect our privacy. It also argues we need to exclude others in order to protect and nurture our loved ones. The book combines philosophical analysis and literary and film criticism to put forward an innovative and insightful new approach to looking at housing. It draws on the work of thinkers as diverse as Aristotle, Derrida, Kierkegaard, Nussbaum and Scruton and the films of Chaplin, Bergman, Lynch, Tarr, Teshigahara and Van Sant to construct a new theoretical approach to housing research.Using innovative theoretical concepts, this book develops a new approach to looking at dwelling and how we use it. Combining philosophical analysis and literary and film criticism, it puts forward an innovative and insightful new approach to looking at housing and explores issues of exclusion, isolation, anxiety, privacy and the relations between parent and child.Peter King is Reader in Social Thought in the Centre for Comparative Housing Research, Department of Public Policy, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.'Peter King has produced an idiosyncratic and highly readable contribution to analyzing the concept of dwelling . The book is thought-provoking, insightful and entertaining. In engaging with an impressive range of theory and popular culture, it takes numerous unexpected turns with wit and originality. I can think of no other writer who can provide such an accessible examination of subjectivity and the home through an eclectic yet rewarding mix of philosophy, sociology, literature and film.' Tony Manzi, Universitl#d