ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we look at the home, which is widely considered to be the symbol and materialization of private realm. This will be done through two different but intertwined dimensions, which look at the interplay of inside-outside and the dynamics of the inside of private space. First, the home is the private intimate space that is separated, and protects its members, from the public impersonal outside, as reflected in the social institution of the household and the historic process of the rise of the modern family. Second, the inside of the home is also a socio-spatial world in which changing interpersonal relations and physical configurations mean privacy can be a complex and contested notion, as reflected in the changing shape of the family and interior space of the home.
