ABSTRACT
One of the recurring motifs in the interpretation of the Great Depression was the use of housing – either house museums, or reconstructed rooms within larger museums – as a setting for exploring the crisis. This chapter considers the interconnected themes of refuge, community, and the processes of inclusion and exclusion in the experience of vulnerability. It argues that while domestic space interpretation provides visceral moments of interaction with vulnerability, institutional and civic strategies of inclusion continue to rely heavily on crafting acceptable vulnerable populations.
