Home as a site of resistance: Editorial

Abstract

This special issue intervenes in the scholarship on domestic space on screen by adopting a specific focus on the home as a space of resistance across different geographies and time periods, from the 1960s to today. The articles utilise a mix of research methods, from archival to participatory documentary. Considering debates from fields such as home movie studies, virtual reality, media activism, and the relationship between film and urbanism, the articles in this special issue demonstrate how film and media can address resistance centred around the concept of home. They also challenge and offer alternative views to white, heteronormative, middle-class representations of domestic life. These articles provide insights into the challenges and importance of home for marginalised groups, suggest new ways for film and media studies to approach representation, and centre the portrayal of often overlooked communities. Central to these articles is the idea of home and the use of media as a form of resistance and agency that can be used to contest mainstream perspectives. Each article looks at what home means, whether it’s a place of safety, precarity, identity, or memory, with each essay looking at how media shape or challenge our views of home and social identity.