Irene Sartoretti participe au séminaire international “Unhomely” qui se tient les 3 et 4 novembre à Trento.

La chercheuse interviendra à propos de la manière dont les différentes approches théoriques en sciences sociales ont décliné cette notion, née à l'origine dans l'univers de l'art comme sentiment esthétique.

Unhomely: scientific adventures of an idea

Originating as a literary theme in the 19th century, the unhomely was formalized in psychology in the first half of the 20th century. But it is from the post-World War II period that this notion became one of the main themes in social sciences. The presentation reconstructs how the unhomely became a sociological theme, showing the contribution of the various schools of thought that appropriated it: psycho-sociology, phenomenology, post-colonial studies and gender studies. Particular attention is paid to the evolutions of the concept over time, in relation to the social transformations and the institutional concerns of the moment. Indeed, the concept takes on important differences depending on the historical period. In the post-World War II period, it is used as a critique of the massive construction of standardized buildings. Later, in gender and postcolonial studies, it is used to express the difficult experience of feeling at home for women in a patriarchal culture and the sentiment of alienation and displacement of colonized people. More recently the idea of unhomely is situated in an increasingly globalized context, characterized by generalized mobilities and migrations. New forms of uncertainty and psychic suffering, linked to the deconstruction of 20th-century political and social assets, shift its signification from the impossibility of feeling at home to the ontological difficulty of locating oneself in the World. Finally, the unhomely is nowadays confronted with environmental concerns, extending its semantic area to the uninhabitability of the Earth consequent to anthropogenic changes.