As a basic human requirement, the home plays a vital role in supporting personal, communal and national wellbeing. It offers a physical and psychological space for individuals to ground their lives, so is critical in improving our understanding individual and community needs and assets. Different sectors, public service providers, age groups and settled or transient communities, however, all conceive of home in quite different ways. 

This programme put the concept of ‘home’ at the centre of a set of Ideas Workshops to develop a common vocabulary around home and wellbeing. It engaged a range of sectorial policy interests such as housing, planning, social work, healthcare and design to fully debate understandings of home that can help better inform policy objectives with respect to issues such as house-building, home-working, home-care and general place liveability. 
The team's approach to examining the varied understandings of home was organised around elaborating meanings and relationships through multi-professional and inter-disciplinary Ideas Workshops focusing on both personal and environmental determinants of wellbeing, including:

  • a reconsideration of the relationships of both personal and environmental factors in constructions of home through better appreciating individual perceptions of belonging, identity and personal autonomy;
  • discussion of alternative housing solutions which could improve individual flourishing and associated socio-economic wellbeing; and
  • identifying priorities for action to promote and embed these improved wellbeing outcomes through public policy, private developer practice, third sector action and academic research. 

Programme Team

Prof. Deborah Peel, University of Dundee
Prof. Douglas Robertson, University of Stirling
Prof. James Mitchell, University of Edinburgh 
Dr Beverley Searle, University of Dundee
Dr Thilo Kroll, Social Dimensions of Health Institute
Martin Higgins, NHS Lothian
Lisa Pattoni, IRISS
Rosemary Brotchie, Shelter Scotland
Prof. Jill Grant, Dalhousie University, Canada

Final Report

Outputs

Please contact the team for any outputs and follow-up activities.