Need for shelter, demand for housing, desire for home: a psychoanalytic reading of home-making in Vancouver

Pohl, Lucas; Genz, Carolin; Helbrecht, Ilse; Dobrusskin, Janina

doi:10.1080/02673037.2020.1857708

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…As Easthope states, when "the possibility of a feeling of rootedness diminishes […] our need to create a sense of place as 'secure and stable' is heightened" (Easthope, 2004, p.133). There is thus a dialectic tension in housing struggles that is rarely articulated: the tension between a collective demand for a right and access to housing, and a subjective desire for a place called home (Pohl et al, 2020). Such desire proves to be a powerful force, potentially compelling individuals to transform or adapt their conduct and their aspirations.…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They need to create opportunities in which feelings of loss, shame, and personal failure can be articulated and shared. As Pohl et al (2020) stress, "As long as we equate homes and housing, we lose sight of this personal dimension." The realization that it is not only an issue of financialization and commodification, but is also about a shared experience of desiring a home, can be a powerful way to build a liminal communitas: "This relationship is always a 'happening', something that arises in instant mutuality, when each person fully experiences the being of the other" (Turner, 1977, p. 136).…”

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Trying as Hard as I Can”– Narratives of Failure and Success in the Experience of Housing Insecurity

Wolf

2022

Hu Arenas

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The housing crisis represents a liminal experience: a loss of the taken-for-granted and the suspension of ontological security has put individuals in a situation of potentiality in which both conceptions of home and of personal identity are open to transformation. Empirically assessing this liminal transition allows us to understand the refiguration processes of both home and subjectivities. This has both conceptual and political implications: with ongoing individualization of responsibility in virtually all spheres of social life, it is no longer possible to assume that the private sphere of home is an arena in which individuals are free and secured from societal forces, pressures, and compulsions. Instead, we might find ourselves in a transient liminal period in which the very meaning and psycho-social foundation of home are being transformed. To understand these processes is not only an epistemological but also a political endeavor, for only by understanding the psycho-social implications of the housing crisis can we acknowledge its embeddedness in and relation to processes of societal individualization, as well as the potential to open up pathways to the emergence of a liminal communitas.

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Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Trying as Hard as I Can”– Narratives of Failure and Success in the Experience of Housing Insecurity

Wolf

2022

Hu Arenas

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“…Durch den offenen Ansatz des Forschungsprojekts wurden unterschiedliche Themen adressiert, wie beispielsweise die sicherheitsstiftende Funktion des Zuhauses oder existenzielle Bedrohungen, die von Prozessen der Globalisierung ausgehen (Pohl et al, 2020;Helbrecht et al, 2021). Besonders häufig wurde die räumliche Beengtheit des Wohnens in Singapur (oft thematisiert durch das Bild der improvisierten Schlafstätte) und die Relevanz von Sorgebeziehungen hervorgehoben (beispielsweise ausgelöst durch das Bild der Kunstinstallation, die ein Kleinkind abbildet, das über den Grenzzaun greift).…”

Section: Fallbeispiel Singapur Und Methodisches Vorgehenunclassified

Anerkennung und ontologische (Un-)Sicherheit von migrantischen Care-Arbeiterinnen in Singapur: Zur Bedeutung von Sichtbarkeit und Zugehörigkeit

Dobrusskin

Helbrecht

2021

Geogr. Helv.

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Abstract. Migrant domestic workers in Singapore are situated in a highly hierarchical environment, requiring them to live and work in the same place. This spatial situation leads to a lack of space and time for the female workers which challenges their psychosocial well-being. We ask how the women, nevertheless, develop psychosocial well-being, based on their recognition and subjective embodied positioning, analytically grasped through the concept of ontological (in)security. Based on qualitative interviews, we show how the workers perceive and produce ontological (in)security through spatial dimensions of visibility and belonging. These dimensions are subjectively embodied in multiple places and networks. On behalf of multiple visibilities and belongings outside the domestic realm, domestic care workers in Singapore are able to actively produce ontological security and strengthen their psychosocial well-being. The results show the relevance of implementing regulations for the women to have more possibilities in choosing their whereabouts.

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“…The structuring element that guided the interviews followed the "photo-elicitation" approach (Harper, 2002), using images to shed light on the emotional and affective dimensions of security-related spatial knowledge (Pohl & Helbrecht, 2022). Due to our open approach, the interviews touched upon a variety of topics, from the ontologically (in) securing aspects emanating from housing and homemaking (Pohl et al, 2020) to the importance of geopolitical positioning with respect to political caesuras for everyday perceptions of security (Genz et al, 2021).…”

Section: Imag(inari)es Of Nature and Ontological Security In Vancouve...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 2 2 In this paper, we focus on the concept of ontological security through a Lacanian perspective, drawing especially on the role of fantasies and the imaginary in (ontologically) securing the subject. For previous engagements of the concept of ontological security using a Lacanian approach, see also Browning (2019), Eberle (2019) and Pohl et al (2020). …”

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confidence: 99%

The love of nature: Imaginary environments and the production of ontological security in postnatural times

Pohl

Helbrecht

2022

Geography and Environment

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The existence of nature is vehemently called into question in the Anthropocene. The standard image of nature as a pristine, harmonious, and stable background no longer holds, especially as ecological changes increasingly penetrate the collective consciousness. Consequently, there has been growing interest in the psychological effects of this end of nature. A recent wave of scholarship shows how climate change and the Anthropocene more generally affect people's daily lives and present significant threats to psychic well‐being. This paper follows on from these debates. In contrast, however, we ask if and how nature is still considered as providing a subjective sense of (ontological) security today. We argue that, even under postnatural conditions, nature still maintains an imaginary existence in the social reality of the subject. We address this argument empirically by focusing on everyday life perceptions of nature in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, and theoretically by following the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. Drawing on image‐based interviews (photo‐elicitation), we demonstrate that a psychoanalytic approach to imaginary environments allows us to understand why people state that they love nature even though it does not exist. We show how this love works by pointing out how nature is considered as (m)other and, through this, engaged as a place to retreat and escape from the burdens of everyday life while being perceived from a certain distance. In conclusion, we emphasise the broader political consequences of the imaginary existence of nature and call for further engagement with the persistence of nature's fantasy in times when nature seems to no longer fit the purpose.

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Need for shelter, demand for housing, desire for home: a psychoanalytic reading of home-making in Vancouver

Cited by 13 publications

References 64 publications

“Trying as Hard as I Can”– Narratives of Failure and Success in the Experience of Housing Insecurity

“Trying as Hard as I Can”– Narratives of Failure and Success in the Experience of Housing Insecurity

Anerkennung und ontologische (Un-)Sicherheit von migrantischen Care-Arbeiterinnen in Singapur: Zur Bedeutung von Sichtbarkeit und Zugehörigkeit

The love of nature: Imaginary environments and the production of ontological security in postnatural times

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