Shifting ‘home’ : exploring young Singaporean adults’ negotiations of ‘place’ and self.

• Main Author: Chan, Emily Ka Yan.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/51827
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The notion of ‘place’ and ‘space’ has traditionally been the concern of human geographers and spatial theorists. However, in line with Gieryn’s (2000) call for “A Space for Place in Sociology”, this paper attempts to address these issues using a sociological framework instead, by exploring how young Singaporean adults who have lived abroad negotiate the idea of ‘home’ as it is lived, experienced and interpreted. Using in-depth narrative interviews to uncover their place-making practices, the following dimensions of ‘home’ will be discussed: (i) the ‘where’ and ‘what’ of home as it is constituted physically and relationally, (ii) how it is experienced through the embodied habitus and finally, (iii) how it features in self-narratives of personal growth and choice.