What is a house? Ethnography of emotions in the construction of knowledge in a squatter space

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study the processes of knowledge construction that take place in everyday practices based on the analysis of the emotionalities forged around the objects of knowledge and the experiences linked to them. Specifically, we work with a group of families who live in a squatter house in the centre of the city of Buenos Aires, reconstructing the meanings that children and adults give to the very concept of squatter house and to the practice of occupying a household. The methodology used is the ethnographic in dialogue with the clinical method and the conclusions indicate that each age group knows the objects and their surrounding reality differently, as their emotional experiences are crossed in a divergent way by fear and joy.