Sizing Home, Doing Family in Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Large housing is an issue of growing concern across popular culture, academic and policy domains, yet little is known about how and why people live in large houses. This paper addresses this gap, investigating the cultural underpinnings and social practices of large housing through a qualitative study carried out in Sydney, Australia. In these suburban, detached dwellings, large housing is valued for the affordances it provides for enacting visions of home and family. Specifically, it is a strategy for managing the aural and material excesses of family life; it mediates familial relations and supports the production of middle-class identities. These findings demonstrate the myriad connections between familial practices and housing dynamics and adds to a growing confirmation of the cultural inflections of (un)sustainable practice.