ABSTRACT
The foundations of social life lie less in discursive consensus than in shared patterns of behaviour which are unselfconscious and barely articulated. It is in concrete and emplaced patterns of life rather than public debate or logical argument that the norms which allow society to function originate and are reproduced. Home and existential community are the foundations of a secure identity and sense of belonging. The dominant conceptualisations of home in the twentieth century, the nation-state and the suburban nuclear household, continue to shape our personal and political aspirations, even as they are destabilised by globalisation and social change. One potential response to the contemporary crisis is therefore to give renewed attention to localising processes at every scale at which they operate, from household and family to neighbourhood and town. Localising processes can thereby help create spaces of freedom and renewal on the edge of a globalised society which is becoming ever harsher as its social and ecological underpinnings erode.
