Att göra hem – En studie av unga mäns boende och konsumtion på 2000-talet

Sammanfattning: “Home” has become a commercialised place in contemporary Sweden. As both cause and ef- fect of this development, the Swedish market for furniture and interior decoration has grown significantly during the last twenty years. Retailers, television shows and magazines have con- tributed to a steadily progressing market, where consumers shop for the latest in furniture as well as the latest ideas and ideals of home. How do people make home today and what charac- terises these homes? This study offers one answer to these questions providing a description of how seven young men made their lodgings into homes through consumption of furniture and interior decorations during the first ten years of the 21st century. The results of the study permit a reassessment of the image of home prevalent in marke- ting and consumption research. In this research tradition, home was often described as private place connected to family, and is conceptualised as closed and non-commercial. This puts forward an alternative image. From a “relational place” perspective, home can be seen as a place shaped by events and actions, consisting of arranging people, things and symbols in a manner that makes people belong to that place. The seven young men under study described their ho- mes as open and movable places, interwoven with the market. Their descriptions showed how commercial ideas and products had been put to individual use, and how homes were made into interfaces, connecting rather than separating the men from the world. Homes were places that facilitated and sustained relationships, places that merged commercial ideas and products with individual aspirations, and places that were opened to, rather than closed from, the world. The interconnectedness of the home and the market suggested by this study document the importance of a proper understanding of home for any investigations aiming at establishing how commercial products and marketing practice are put to use and made part of people’s everyday life.