Call for papers on 'home matters: meanings, metaphors and practices'

16 March 2018

An international conference organised by UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies seeks to uncover how home is imagined, practiced and experienced around the world.

The conference takes place on Thursday 31 May and Friday 1 June 2018, and is inviting paper submissions until 23 March 2018.

The core theme of 'home matters' is inspired by concerns for the 'migration crisis', as well as shifts in intergenerational relations and the long-term impact of childhood experiences. It will consider the political and personal implications of particular ways of imagining home for different groups of people in different places.

A major aim of the conference is to consider the multilevel imaginaries of home that lie at the heart of many of the dramatic political changes across the globe. In the Middle East, many African countries, Europe and the USA, struggles over who belongs and who should be excluded from particular nations, are justified by reference to nations as homes. A further aim is to consider new approaches to analysing the multiplicity and complexity of home.

Submissions

Papers may address, but are not restricted to, the following themes:

Why and when does home matter?
Homes as dwellings including family homes and out-of-family care
Making home in institutions including educational and employment institutions etc.
Localities and national policies and institutions
Transnational families
Migration and refugees
Imaginaries of family and nation

Abstracts of no more than 300 words including name, institutional affiliation and contact email should be sent no later than Friday 23 March 2018. They should be submitted in English, the official language of the event.