Feeling at Home

Our feelings about housing are political, and a grasp of them is essential to solving the housing crisis – from the author of They Call It Love

Housing is more than bricks and mortar. The home is where our hopes and dreams play out, and it lies at the heart of our lives. This is where we rest, eat, and relax. The home we enjoy can determine our health, life expectancy, and day-to-day well-being. In contrast, the lack of a stable residence can lead to mental and physical illness and often premature death. This is central to how we conceive of a good and dignified life.

Feeling at Home grapples with the practical and emotional questions of housing – domestic labour, privacy, security, ownership, and health. Is it possible to imagine success without home ownership? Alva Gotby makes clear that solving the housing crisis is about much more than housing stock. It is about revolutionising our everyday lives and labours.Introduction: Housing Matters

1. No Return to Normal
2. Housing Is a Feminist Issue
3. Never at Home
4. Poor Housing Creates Poor Health
5. The Feeling of Ownership
6. Inheriting the Family Home
7. Demanding More, Demanding Better
8. Collective Housing and the Abolition of the Family

Conclusion: Organising Feeling, Transforming Home

Acknowledgements
Notes"This is an insightful and necessary book by one of the most promising feminist thinkers working today. The analysis is sharp, accessible, and timely. The short, punchy chapters never outstay their welcome, and there is a wonderful diversity of approach which is impressive in such a short book. Feeling at Home is a vital resource for anybody interested in the ways we organise our domestic lives."
—Helen Hester, author of Xenofeminism, co-author of After Work

"Feeling At Home makes a compelling political case for something housing movements seem to forget: more homes, even very affordable ones, will not dismantle a fundamentally harmful and exploitative system. Gotby points toward a new horizon where housing can be a means of radically reshaping family, care, and society."
—Leslie Kern, author of Feminist City

"In the best traditions of Marxism and feminism, Alva Gotby insists on asking far better questions. The result is this sophisticated, humane and exciting book.Feeling at Homeis a multi-point perspective that reveals everything that ‘home’ means, and - more importantly - ought to mean. It makes the radical seem obvious, and the impossible seem essential"
—Nick Bano, author of Against Landlords

"This is an insightful and necessary book by one of the most promising feminist thinkers working today. The analysis is sharp, accessible, and timely. The short, punchy chapters never outstay their welcome, and there is a wonderful diversity of approach which is impressive in such a short book. Feeling at Home is a vital resource for anybody interested in the ways we organise our domestic lives."
—Helen Hester, co-author of After Work

"An important focus on the complex and multi-layered nature of home and the housing question, and why we still need to fight for it."
—Andrea Gibbons, author of City of Segregation

"In her riveting new book, formidable scholar and organiser Alva Gotby tackles the personal and social calamities created by our continuing housing crisis. With elegant precision, Gotby shows how we can and must help restore the hope and vision necessary for the collective struggle for better homes for all, eliminating the widespread sense of powerlessness generated by housing precarity and instability. Feeling at Home is an essential resource for winning that struggle."
—The Care Collective, authors of The Care ManifestoAlva Gotby is a writer and organiser living in London. Her first book, They Call It Love, was published in 2023. She holds a PhD from the University of West London and writes about feminist theory, social reproduction, housing, emotions, and family. She is active in struggles for better homes for all.