Scandinavian welfare research has paid more and more attention to the
role played by women in building institutions for children, the sick
and the elderly. The new institutions were generally called ”homes”
and it was precisely this linkage between women and homes that may
have led to clear perceptions of what the new ”homes” were like. Concepts
like motherliness, homeliness and intimacy are presented as important
characteristics, despite (or because of ) the lack of empirical
evidence. Historical research has shown that the home was highly idealised
around the turn of the last century, but this idealisation was prescriptive
and did not necessarily reflect real homes. The aim of this
article is to argue that an institution, or any social system, cannot be
perceived in isolation from the particular parties that created them –
or from the place where they were created. Only then is it possible to
say something about which or whose concept of a home was (attempted)
realised. A phenomenological perspective on the home will
often take as its starting point people’s need for identity, intimacy, security
and meaningfulness. From a sociological point of view, the aspects
that phenomenology pinpoints as important are created through
time-consuming work and relevant categories can be connected with
how the work is organised. ”A home” can be a lot of things, so the
analysis must draw on both material, structural and symbolic aspects