| Abstract: | Abstract: This paper theorizes the gender roles that are played out in the alternative spaces acquired by purchasers of second homes in foreign rural environments. These homes are often constructed by their owners (both men and women) as bolt-holes, simple places of escape from normal routines; the lived reality is that they become arenas in which men often play at cave-building or peasant-style farming, while women find a different context for creative home-making, shopping and socializing, and the caring ethic of being involved with children, grandchildren and visitors. Both genders are freed from the constraints of their normal working lives, but the ambivalent nature of the context which is both home and holiday is one in which work is present, in the form of do-it-yourself or doing the domestic, while at the same time it provides opportunity for forms of ludic behaviour. Drawing from a series of unstructured interviews, I examine the consumption practices of second home owners and analyse the ways in which informants reflect on their activities and identities. The home-and-yet-away context allows the experiences and meanings of home and away from home to be explored from both genders’ perspectives, leading to conclusions about the dynamics of gender relationships in situations that combine routine and novelty. |
