Students will learn about the notions of place, home and house in social anthropology and will understand their complex, multi-layered, fluid and multidisciplinary nature. Students are able to identify the cultural, social and political processes behind the key concepts and relate them to other concepts and societal processes. After successfully passing the course students will be equipped with theoretical tools and empirical understanding for conducting meaningful individual research e.g. for their thesis on topics related to the key concepts of the course.

During the course students will go through a set of important discussions on places, homes and houses in classical and contemporary anthropological writings, both through theoretical and empirical material. The aim of the course is increasing students’ 

understanding on what are the different ways places, homes and houses are dealt with and what are the function, relevance and interrelation of those concepts in anthropological research in contemporary world. 

While the main emphasis will be on transnational and translocal aspects of belonging, students will learn to look beyond the traditional idea of home and house as sites of dwelling, fixity and security, and instead will be introduced to the idea of homes and houses as sites of ambiguity, fluidity and complexity. The course will address the political, physical, emotional and symbolic aspects of making of homes, houses and places. The central empirical learning material to the processes of belonging and home-making is the case of migrant background Russian-speakers in Estonian-Russian border-town Narva (teacher’s own research site).

Max. 25 students, both Finnish and international will be accepted to the course. The preference will be given to those who have background in social anthropology or other related social sciences.

The course will include lectures, seminars, readings, web-based learning, home assignments, final individual or team project.

Key Contents: classical and contemporary theories of place, space, home and house; home-making; housing; house societies; homelessness; memory and nostalgia in home-making; transnational and translocal, postcolonial, Soviet and postsocialist subjectivities in home-making; emotional/symbolic/material/political aspects of home-making and belonging