ABSTRACT
Through discussion of a wide range of studies, this book has critically addressed the concept of the 'ideal home'. What these studies make clear is that people's perspectives on what constitutes an ideal home are heavily circumscribed by a range of social forces. Simply put, we have strongly challenged the conventional wisdom that the home is an entirely private domain - a place where people can live their lives unfettered by external influence. On the contrary, we have demonstrated that society shapes our images and experience of home through the life course. In Chapter 4 of this volume, for example, it was argued that capital is successful in creating images of the ideal home, and that this imagery is consciously manipulated to sell not only a house, but also the accoutrements of an idealised form of family life itself, however unrealistic and unattainable this may or may not be for the incumbents who buy into the dream.
