CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Nada, Letizia |
|---|---|
| Title | Homing in the City: An Ethnography of KulturHaus Brotfabrik and Stand129 in Vienna |
| Summary | This thesis researches homing practices and how they are nurtured inside the semi-public context of cultural centers, particularly through the case study of the KulturHaus in Vienna. It engages with the concept of homing as a continuous process of socio-spatial relations, composed of routines and habits that result in meaningful appropriations of places. The KulturHaus is a cultural center based in Vienna’s 10th district, Favoriten, and located in two venues: the BrotFabrik, a three story building in an historical bread factory, and Stand129, a market stall in the central market square. The research is based on various ethnographic methods including participant observations, interviews, informal conversations and sensory ethnography. Then, the thesis puts in conversations the findings of ethnographic research with the present literature on home across the fields of the sociology of dwelling, urban anthropology and food studies. The analysis unfolds through the structures that form the house, and the practices that nurture the home within them. Particularly, the focus is on foodways, the act of sharing, and the roles one may take on inside the community as main sites of homing practices. I show how the structures of the KulturHaus provide an accessible and fertile ground for homing in Vienna, which emerge as embodied and sensorial practices. These practices are particularly relevant as they provide a way to tackle the unequal distribution of homing possibilities in public and semi-public spaces due to the discrimination against marginalized identities. In the context of Vienna, where far-right sentiments have been steadily rising in recent years yet 45.4% of the population is of foreign origin, researching accessible homing practices is essential to ensure that all its inhabitants can cultivate a sense of home in the city. |
| Supervisor | Daniel Monterescu |
| Department | Undergraduate Studies BA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/nada_letizia.pdf |
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