Year: 2005
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Workshop 2. Session 2.2: Functions and users Abstract: The meaning of dwelling has been studied from many different perspectives such as psychology, phenomenology, sociology and environment behavior studies. Several authors have argued that a more integrative and interdisciplinary approach is needed in which physical, socio-cultural, psychological and economic dimensions are interrelated. However, in many of these studies dwelling is mainly treated as such. What is lacking is an approach in which dwelling is considered as integral part of environment-behavior relations. An ecological approach offers such a perspective. An ecological approach focuses on the individuals ongoing transactions with meaningful features of the environment; it emphasizes the intentionality of individuals actions. The reciprocity of the environment and the individual is a central feature of an ecological approach, and it may be studied at different levels of organization. For instance, a dwelling is an individuals primary anchor in the environment. It may serve many functions such as shelter, privacy, security, control, and status. From an ecological point of view the meaning of dwellings lies in these functional relations between human beings and their dwellings. At a different level, a neighborhood park is a suitable arrangement of features that may also serve functions at a collective level, such as running and playing, walking the dog, and social contacting. In the paper the conceptual and methodological framework for studying the meaning of dwelling from an ecological perspective will be presented. The framework will be illustrated with examples from recent research on the meaning of dwelling in the Netherlands.
Author: Bert Coolen
Institution: Delft University of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W199610510