Between ideals and domestic practices: the micro-geographies and media technologies of home management: A Swedish case study

The home is constituted of materials, cultural meanings and practices (Blunt & Dowling 2006), which means, among other things, that we make home through our domestic practices (Hollows 2008). In an ongoing cultural historical project on home management we are studying practices of domestic paperwork during the 20th century in Sweden. Through interviews with people born before 1940, and the study of public documents, the projects focuses on an area that are often neglected in research about the home. In this paper we take the writing desk and paperwork practices as a starting point to discuss the micro geographies and media technologies of home management. In focusing on these concrete objects, we activate questions about everyday life, gender roles, relation between home and work, and memory practices, as well as ideas about modernity and industrialization in Sweden. During the middle of the 20th century in Sweden the home was an object of rationalization – something that manifested in the famous scientific studies and standardization of the kitchen. In parallel to this modern project many people still lived in informal economy under poor circumstances, in old homes furnished with old furniture. The home can here be seen as an interesting example of different time scales.