ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with product, with dwellings as artefacts which are also consumer goods. It suggests that dwellings are best understood as those systems of setting within which systems of activities take place. The chapter also suggests that the process is similar to that of ‘progressive contextualisation’. It discusses the relationship between household and family, defined ‘housing’ as used in this chapter and dismantled the concept of culture. The chapter explains the extraordinary variety of dwellings and their contexts in terms of the latent aspects of activity systems and lifestyles. It argues that the much higher criticality in developing countries makes such concerns, needs and wants far more important. The relationship between family and housing can be discussed either in terms of process or by looking at housing as product, or by looking at both. Looking at family/housing relationships is therefore tantamount to trying to link housing and culture.
