Everyday Domopolitics: ‘Authenticity’ and the Ordinary Uses of Home in Public Space

The notion of home provides a powerful political metaphor. Its uses in public discourse are receiving increasing attention from various disciplines. Yet, the ways in which this notion is ordinarily evoked in public spaces as an inclusionary or exclusionary metaphor requires further examination. This paper focuses on the ways in which signs of ‘authenticity’ are used in public spaces to establish distinctions between outsiders and insiders. Drawing from ethnographic work in Milan and Madrid, this analysis concentrates on the ways in which ‘authenticity’ is practised and ideas of ‘home’ are evoked to establish thresholds of domesticity and foreignness. It is argued that ways of interacting in, moving across and arranging public space are at the core of the production of notions and feelings of home beyond the household.