ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to explore the notion of home, and the ways in which imaginaries of home inform some of the darkest moments of contemporary life. People fleeing conflict are trying to find a safe space in which they can make a home, those migrating are trying to make themselves at home in strange environments, those seeking out gay bars and nightclubs are seeking places to socialise in which they feel at home. Those transitioning across genders or maintaining gendered fluidity are seeking bodily appearances which signal possibilities of social interaction in which they, too, can feel at home. In each of these examples home is imagined as a positive good, something central to people’s wellbeing. But the imaginary of home can also be problematic. This chapter explores both the necessity and the dangers of the imaginary of home, and people’s assumptions that they are entitled to all aspects of it. The dangers rest on a backwards-looking nostalgia for mythical communities. This informed support for Brexit in the UK, Trump in the US, and many right-wing parties in Europe and beyond. It engenders hostility to difference. The chapter argues that homeplaces are central to wellbeing, but views the building of homeplaces as a future directed project, not an act of backwards looking nostalgia.
