Beyond Home: Forging the Domestic in Shared Housing

ABSTRACT

This article examines how connections between intimacy and the realm of the domestic are propelled by conditions of shared residence. Informed by research among low-income families in Buenos Aires who organize to attain collectively owned housing, I depict how the propinquity provided by common social activism and co-residence creates both a political and an affective community. The groups in question organize their cohabitation and everyday life according to a set of explicit and collectively sanctioned rules and regulations concerning distribution and uses of space, maintenance, etc. However, living together also implies embracing a myriad of norms regarding aspects of intimacy and the body—particularly those related to sexuality—which, although alluded to by written rules, can only gain voice in the more nuanced, semi-public idioms of gossip and rumor. The article explores these assertions by considering several instances where rules and gossip intersected in deliberations about (im)proper attire in common areas, and the making of decisions about kinship and care. I describe the emotional undertones that emerge around these issues—such as jealousy, modesty, or suspicion—in order to examine how they articulate a domestic domain.

These reflections are based on extended interviews. In order to preserve my informants' anonymity I used pseudonyms in all cases.