KALD OG DRØMMESTOF: Parcelhusets værdier

Abstract

The values attached to privately owned single-family houses in Denmark are

analyzed as social processes that join private and public in a mode which Max

Weber’s concept of vocation can illuminate. The house represents ethics and

moral values linked with economics and ideas about investment in the future.

Practices aimed at improving and maintaining the house interact with the dominant

moral of society. At the same time, the house is a locus of dreams and consumption.

Applying Weber’s concept of vocation and Collin Campbell’s ideas about

a romantic ethic related to consumption and day- dreaming, the article interprets

practices surrounding the house, with the conclusion that the house is embedded

in a set of contradictory forces consisting of dream material and wider social,

moral obligations.

Keywords: Housing, values, materiality, ethics.