Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space

Raghda Hassan Hareri

doi:doi:10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12

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Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space

Raghda Hassan Hareri

Received: 1 November 2017 Accepted: 8 February 2018 Published: 5 March 2018

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Abstract

This paper entails a non-western analysis of the contemporary home environment. The main focus of this study is the role of women in family living room design, particularly in the context of Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study was to determine how the interior design of domestic space offers opportunities for women to present their identity. Saudi women using their living space within the home can play a role in expressing the identity of those women through the experience of designing this space and the interaction with its objects. The methodological framework has been structured into an ethnographical approach, which involved in-depth interviews with middle class housewives in their living rooms, aimed to seek information about experiences, interaction and values in the home environment, and enables identity presentation in the family living room. In addition, associated methods, such as photographic and video records, coding the living space features and visual observation of the living room were used to enrich data collection and unpack the environmental meaning. These mixed methods helped to understand the reality of women’s life experiences and provide a compelling portrait of women’s roles and identity within their living space. This paper explains the expression of individual (women) identity and the expression of group (family) identity within the living rooms. The living room in Jeddah homes is the centre space of symbolic interaction, where "I" meets "them", where women show how well they have presented themselves and the values of their families in the living room context.

DOI	10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12
Published in	Humanities and Social Sciences (Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2018)
Page(s)	7-11
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Domestic Environment, Living Space, Women, Family, Identity

References

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[2]	Al-Naim, M. (1998) Continuity and Change of Identity in The Home Environment: Development of the private house in Hofuf: Saudi Arabia, Thesis (PhD), University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
[3]	Al-Ban, A. (2016). Architecture and Cultural Identity in the Traditional Homes of Jeddah, Unpublished Thesis (PhD), University of Colorado.
[4]	Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2000), Sixth edition, Oxford: Oxford university Press.
[5]	Longman (2009) Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners, Person Education Limited.
[6]	Blunt, A. (2005) Cultural geography: Cultural geographies of home. Progress in Human Geography, 29 (4), 505-515.
[7]	Akbar, S. (1998) Home and Furniture: Use and Meaning of Domestic Space, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Thesis (PhD), University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
[8]	AL-Nafea, N. A. (2006) Home Environment in Transition: Women and Design in the City of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Thesis (PhD), London South Bank University.
[9]	Mahmud, S. (2007) Identity Crisis due to Transformation of Home Environment: The Case for Two Muslim Cities, Dhaka and Hofuf. METU JFA, 24 (2), 37-56.
[10]	Miller, D. (1987) Material Culture and Mass Consumerism. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
[11]	Mallett, S. (2004) Understanding home: A critical review of the literature, Sociological Review, 52 (1), 62-89.
[12]	Gosling, S., Craik, K. H., Martin, N. R. & Pryor, M. R., (2005) The Personal Living Space Cue Inventory: An Analysis and Evaluation. Environment and Behavior, 37 (5), 683- 705.
[13]	Galvin, K. M., Braithwaite, O. D. & Bylund, L. C. (2015) Family Communication: Cohesion and Change, (9th Edition). Taylor and Francis.
[14]	Silva, E. B., (2000) The Politics of Consumption at Home: Practices and Dispositions in the Uses of Technologies, Pavis Papers in social and cultural research No. 1, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
[15]	Hamdan-Saliba, H. and Fenster, T. (2012) Tactics and strategies of power: the construction of spaces of belonging for Palestinian women in Jaffa-Tel Aviv, Women’s Studies International Forum, 35, 203-213.
[16]	Al-Naim M. (2008) Identity in Transitional Context: Open-Ended, International Journal of Architectural Research, 2 (2), 125-146.
[17]	McKellar, S., Sparke, P., Victoria Albert Museum, & Royal College of Art. (2004). Interior design and identity. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
[18]	Hamdan, S. (1990) Social Change in the Saudi Family, Thesis (PhD), Iowa State University.

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APA Style

Raghda Hassan Hareri. (2018). Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space. Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(1), 7-11. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12

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Raghda Hassan Hareri. Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2018, 6(1), 7-11. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12

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AMA Style

Raghda Hassan Hareri. Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space. Humanit Soc Sci. 2018;6(1):7-11. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12

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@article{10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12,
  author = {Raghda Hassan Hareri},
  title = {Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space},
  journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
  volume = {6},
  number = {1},
  pages = {7-11},
  doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20180601.12},
  abstract = {This paper entails a non-western analysis of the contemporary home environment. The main focus of this study is the role of women in family living room design, particularly in the context of Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study was to determine how the interior design of domestic space offers opportunities for women to present their identity. Saudi women using their living space within the home can play a role in expressing the identity of those women through the experience of designing this space and the interaction with its objects. The methodological framework has been structured into an ethnographical approach, which involved in-depth interviews with middle class housewives in their living rooms, aimed to seek information about experiences, interaction and values in the home environment, and enables identity presentation in the family living room. In addition, associated methods, such as photographic and video records, coding the living space features and visual observation of the living room were used to enrich data collection and unpack the environmental meaning. These mixed methods helped to understand the reality of women’s life experiences and provide a compelling portrait of women’s roles and identity within their living space. This paper explains the expression of individual (women) identity and the expression of group (family) identity within the living rooms. The living room in Jeddah homes is the centre space of symbolic interaction, where "I" meets "them", where women show how well they have presented themselves and the values of their families in the living room context.},
 year = {2018}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space
AU  - Raghda Hassan Hareri
Y1  - 2018/03/05
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12
T2  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JF  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JO  - Humanities and Social Sciences
SP  - 7
EP  - 11
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-8184
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12
AB  - This paper entails a non-western analysis of the contemporary home environment. The main focus of this study is the role of women in family living room design, particularly in the context of Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study was to determine how the interior design of domestic space offers opportunities for women to present their identity. Saudi women using their living space within the home can play a role in expressing the identity of those women through the experience of designing this space and the interaction with its objects. The methodological framework has been structured into an ethnographical approach, which involved in-depth interviews with middle class housewives in their living rooms, aimed to seek information about experiences, interaction and values in the home environment, and enables identity presentation in the family living room. In addition, associated methods, such as photographic and video records, coding the living space features and visual observation of the living room were used to enrich data collection and unpack the environmental meaning. These mixed methods helped to understand the reality of women’s life experiences and provide a compelling portrait of women’s roles and identity within their living space. This paper explains the expression of individual (women) identity and the expression of group (family) identity within the living rooms. The living room in Jeddah homes is the centre space of symbolic interaction, where "I" meets "them", where women show how well they have presented themselves and the values of their families in the living room context.
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Raghda Hassan Hareri

Department of Interior Design, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

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APA Style

Raghda Hassan Hareri. (2018). Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space. Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(1), 7-11. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12

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ACS Style

Raghda Hassan Hareri. Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space. Humanit. Soc. Sci. 2018, 6(1), 7-11. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Raghda Hassan Hareri. Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space. Humanit Soc Sci. 2018;6(1):7-11. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12,
  author = {Raghda Hassan Hareri},
  title = {Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space},
  journal = {Humanities and Social Sciences},
  volume = {6},
  number = {1},
  pages = {7-11},
  doi = {10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hss.20180601.12},
  abstract = {This paper entails a non-western analysis of the contemporary home environment. The main focus of this study is the role of women in family living room design, particularly in the context of Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study was to determine how the interior design of domestic space offers opportunities for women to present their identity. Saudi women using their living space within the home can play a role in expressing the identity of those women through the experience of designing this space and the interaction with its objects. The methodological framework has been structured into an ethnographical approach, which involved in-depth interviews with middle class housewives in their living rooms, aimed to seek information about experiences, interaction and values in the home environment, and enables identity presentation in the family living room. In addition, associated methods, such as photographic and video records, coding the living space features and visual observation of the living room were used to enrich data collection and unpack the environmental meaning. These mixed methods helped to understand the reality of women’s life experiences and provide a compelling portrait of women’s roles and identity within their living space. This paper explains the expression of individual (women) identity and the expression of group (family) identity within the living rooms. The living room in Jeddah homes is the centre space of symbolic interaction, where "I" meets "them", where women show how well they have presented themselves and the values of their families in the living room context.},
 year = {2018}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Saudi Women and the Expression of Identity in the Domestic Living Space
AU  - Raghda Hassan Hareri
Y1  - 2018/03/05
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12
T2  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JF  - Humanities and Social Sciences
JO  - Humanities and Social Sciences
SP  - 7
EP  - 11
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-8184
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hss.20180601.12
AB  - This paper entails a non-western analysis of the contemporary home environment. The main focus of this study is the role of women in family living room design, particularly in the context of Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study was to determine how the interior design of domestic space offers opportunities for women to present their identity. Saudi women using their living space within the home can play a role in expressing the identity of those women through the experience of designing this space and the interaction with its objects. The methodological framework has been structured into an ethnographical approach, which involved in-depth interviews with middle class housewives in their living rooms, aimed to seek information about experiences, interaction and values in the home environment, and enables identity presentation in the family living room. In addition, associated methods, such as photographic and video records, coding the living space features and visual observation of the living room were used to enrich data collection and unpack the environmental meaning. These mixed methods helped to understand the reality of women’s life experiences and provide a compelling portrait of women’s roles and identity within their living space. This paper explains the expression of individual (women) identity and the expression of group (family) identity within the living rooms. The living room in Jeddah homes is the centre space of symbolic interaction, where "I" meets "them", where women show how well they have presented themselves and the values of their families in the living room context.
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download