A place for sharing: The emotional geographies of peer-sharing in UK University halls of residences

Abstract

Our homes are important spaces through which emotions are produced, performed and regulated. They carry significant material and symbolic value and are inscribed with meaning and belonging that are often crucial in shaping and (re)producing collective and individual identities. Yet while research has explored the role of the home in the co-production of familial values, networks and behaviours, less is understood of the emotional geographies of accommodation occupied by non-related adultsdefined here as 'peer-sharing'. This paper responds to this gap by exploring how peer-shared living-spaces are emotionally constructed through a case study of students living in a UK university's halls of residences. In doing so, this paper examines how (1) the morphology of shared living-spaces contributes towards the production of sharers' emotions, (2) emotions become inscribed upon home-spaces through place-making activities and (3) diversity is enacted through the emotional work of sharers and how this is performed through friendship in shared living-spaces. This analysis concludes by emphasising the important role of emotions in coproducing different spaces, activities, knowledges and experiences among peersharers and how peer-sharing might be both performed in and influenced by living spaces.

Learning spaces in the countryside: university students and the Harper assemblage

“…Over the past decade human geographers have created a burgeoning field of enquiry into the geographies of education (Cook & Hemming, ; Thiem, ; Waters, ). Much of this work has focused on higher education at various spatial scales, analysing the macroscale political economy of educational reforms in a globalised world (e.g., Jöns & Hoyler, ), but also increasingly centred on students themselves at the micro‐level everyday living of the individual in urban environments (e.g., Holton, ).…”

Student housing as a learning space

“…The strategies and vicissitudes of students' exercising their agency in relation to living spaces has recently been explored by a number of researchers. The emotional work associated with (not always entirely successfully) establishing personal boundaries and negotiating shared domestic responsibilities with strangers who may not subscribe to or be familiar with all one's norms and habits can be demanding and fraught (Holton, 2017). The university campus, and student residences within them are, indeed, micropublics, allowing for the possibility of exploring living with difference, but this is not straightforward, and a common coping strategy for students is to seek out those they identify as similar from within these thrown together groups (Andersson, Sadgrove & Valentine 2012) , or to withdraw (Holton, 2016a,b) .…”

“…The university campus, and student residences within them are, indeed, micropublics, allowing for the possibility of exploring living with difference, but this is not straightforward, and a common coping strategy for students is to seek out those they identify as similar from within these thrown together groups (Andersson, Sadgrove & Valentine 2012) , or to withdraw (Holton, 2016a,b) . Yet, even a self-defined group of similar students is not homogeneous (Holton & Riley, 2013) and the work of negotiating shared living will still need to be undertaken (Holton, 2017) . It is clear that on occasion conditions can be created which facilitate open and constructive discussion of what a shared existence requires (Holton, 2017), but student residences are no more innocent of power-relations than any other social setting and oppressive and exclusionary behaviour is always possible (Taulke-Johnson, 2010; Holton, 2016b).…”

“…For example, there may be far less rigidity about where the activities of daily life are conducted than is usual in family domestic space where cooking is for the kitchen, sleeping is in bedrooms, and so on (Holton, 2016b). This may be related to materiality of accommodation, such as no communal spaces (Holton, 2017), but students living away from their families may also choose to experiment with different ways of organising their life as they explore, construct and perform identities (2016b). The blurring of public and private space that communal living may involve (Holton, 2017) could also pose obvious practical challenges in relation to studying.…”

“…This may be related to materiality of accommodation, such as no communal spaces (Holton, 2017), but students living away from their families may also choose to experiment with different ways of organising their life as they explore, construct and perform identities (2016b). The blurring of public and private space that communal living may involve (Holton, 2017) could also pose obvious practical challenges in relation to studying. It would be reasonable to expect, then, that the construction and negotiation of a student's domestic space would be bound up with the establishment of study habits and routines.…”