ON THE USES, FUNCTIONS AND MEANINGS OF HOMING IN THE LITERATURE (S. YAPO & P. BOCCAGNI – HOMING WP 7_2020)

A wide literature exists on the genealogy and the conceptual career of home in social sciences, and beyond. The same does not hold for its derivative term homing, though. Despite its circulation in a diverse and multidisciplinary literature over time, no systematization has been done yet of the conceptual, disciplinary and temporal patterns in the usage of homing. This is not irrelevant, since this notion has some circulation in a variety of disciplines. This paper is based on a dedicated and preliminary exploration through two academic databases, with a view to retrieving the main ways to use homing and its associations with specific concepts in different disciplines from 1885 to 2019. This called for a bridging act between natural sciences, where the bulk of the usages of homing lies, and selected sub-areas in social sciences. As a result, a new conceptual map is proposed on the predominant understandings of homing, each of them producing its own insights on home and mobilities.
Read the working paper:
by STEFANIA YAPO and PAOLO BOCCAGNI