ABSTRACT
The inscription of symbolic boundaries crystalises discrete ways of being and belonging and stabilises them through time through their association with a particular place or social setting – Threshold and boundary customs are ubiquitous across human cultures and encode qualitative differentiations of space – Symbolic boundaries act to reinforce the ontological security associated with home, delimiting a space as familiar, habitable and secure – They mark the space of home as qualitatively different from the world beyond; a centre of concentrated value, heightened reality, and meaningful order – Symbolic boundaries also define home as a place of refuge and retreat, although the location of these boundaries has changed substantially since the industrial revolution, initially with the separation of public and private spheres and more recently under the impact of technology and the information society.
