Technology, Culture, Family: Influences on Home Life

Why does the profound technological transformation of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries appear to have done so little to effectively change patterns of care and ways of living in the home? Why is it that long-lasting social divisions are continually ‘reconfigured’ in different contexts amidst a vast array of choices for living differently? Do sexism and power continually shape the meanings and patterns of use of even the most radical technologies? If change exists both in technological developments and in ways of living personal lives, why do these seem to occur in parallel but remain relatively disconnected from one another? And why is it that the world of technology is usually seen to ‘impact’ upon personal ways of relating and of doing things rather than vice versa? This book is about understanding personal, relational and material matters in everyday life in the context of broader and long-standing social problems and issues. I use stories that I have gathered during many years of research into the ways people live in their homes at present to reflect on the connections between everyday practices in the reproduction of our bodies and our relations with those we live with, and the technological patterns and practices of a world driven by forces that go far beyond any individual or small group.

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