Citation

Korosec-Serfaty P, Bolitt D. J. Environ. Psychol. 1986; 6(4): 329-344.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, Academic Press)

DOI

10.1016/S0272-4944(86)80005-6

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study attempts to define the fundamental dimensions of the home experience through its dramatization, in this case, when one is burgled. It is based on thirty-six interviews conducted with middle-class urban dwellers who had been burgled a year prior to the interview. The analysis of the data was mainly thematic and hermeneutical. It shows that the dwelling experience is the experience of boundaries, the door being a limit between inside and outside, and also a limit within oneself. Moreover, the uncontrolled access by another person to the hidden/secret subspaces of the dwelling incites reactions which reveal the importance of the dweller's visibility. Lastly, the re-appropriation processes which take place after the burglary show that dwelling is essentially a sum of future-orientated actions.