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Rethinking Home in Volatile Worlds

Project description

Rethinking home in times of precarity

In times of conflict, inequality and climate change, the idea of ‘home’ as being stable, private and owned no longer reflects reality. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the DefrostingHOME project examines how people create forms of home under unstable living conditions, such as informal settlements and refugee camps in Argentina and Italy. The project’s goal is to design a new methodology that combines ethnographic research with participatory visual methods, co-producing knowledge with participants. It will also build a comparative framework to analyse the structural drivers of housing precarity, including extractivism, conflict, borders, gender violence, neocolonialism and climate change.

Objective

"What defines ""home"" in an era of precarity and volatility? DefrostingHOME explores the interplay between unstable dwelling conditions and evolving notions of home, challenging traditional binaries such as private/public spaces, stability versus precarity, and home versus homelessness. Mainstream Western narratives often prioritise stability and ownership, marginalising those living in conditions that deviate from these norms. The project follows current critiques of normative conceptions of inhabitation and expands their scope in three ways. First, it will investigate volatile forms of inhabitation on the ground to bring to the fore everyday practices of homemaking and subtle, often neglected forms of care, agency, and resistance. Second, it will develop a decolonial hybrid methodology that combines ethnography with participatory visual methods, co-creating knowledge with research participants. Third, it will establish the foundations for a comparative framework based on the examination of the structural causes of volatility at the global level, including extractivism, war and nationalism, neocolonialism, borders, gender violence, and climate change, as well as the ways these factors intersect to produce volatile dwelling conditions in various scenarios. Through diverse case studies in Argentina and Italy, in contexts such as urban slums and refugee camps, and leveraging insights from phenomenological anthropology, decolonial studies, ecofeminism and multimodal methodologies, DefrostingHOME interrogates volatile dwelling as a condition for reimagining habitation. Ultimately, DefrostingHOME aims to redefine home as a dynamic, relational and adaptive process, offering transformative insights for urban policy, migration studies, and climate adaptation efforts."

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA
Net EU contribution
€ 296 111,16
Address
DORSODURO 3246
30123 Venezia
Italy
Region
Nord-Est Veneto Venezia
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (2)