Sense and Sensation – The Material Politics of Openness in Post-Cosmopolitan Homes
This paper examines the sensations of Irish-Romanian homes in Dublin among people in a range of insecure positions, as regards residency and working permits, based on research from 2004 to 2008. People experienced their homes as somehow hyper-sensitized. The sensory qualities of temperature, moisture, and the flow of air were immensely significant, and the properties of many material spaces of habitation seemed to be changing or in flux. This quite specific construction and experience of domesticity is counterpoised against a background of the cultural value of openness and contrasting cultures of openness in different parts of Europe. Openness is a quality celebrated both generally in the Irish population and also among Romanians, but in different ways. Hence, what openness means for an Irish-Romanian – likely born in Romania and now living in Ireland – is contested and a locus of tension. The capacity to perform openness here depends on the right kind of material context and relates closely to the home. Lastly, the paper considers the implications for aspirations toward an ‘open society’ in a post-cosmopolitan, perhaps post-open Europe.
Adam Drazin is an anthropology lecturer at University College London, where he coordinates the MA in Materials.Anthropology.Design. His two main current research interests are design anthropology and the Romanian home. He has worked in the past as a design anthropologist for HP Labs and Intel Ireland and taught anthropology courses at different universities and design schools. His work has been published in books and journals, including Ethnos, Home Cultures, and the Journal of Design History. He recently edited, with Susanne Küchler, the volume The Social Life of Materials (2015) about anthropological and ethnographic approaches to materials and material innovation.