Domestic fortress

Rowland Atkinson is Chair in Inclusive Societies at the University of SheffieldSarah Blandy is Professor of Law at the University of Sheffield

• Introduction1. Domestic economy2. A shell for the body and mind3. Invasions of privacy4. Fear, crime and the home5. Technologies of the defended home6. Withdraw, defend or destroy7. The fortress archipelago8. Complexes of the domestic fortressIndex

'By focusing on homeownership and tenure, Atkinson and Blandy insightfully connect the privatization of well-being, fear of crime and financial insecurity with contemporary changes in the meaning of home. They capture the important relationship between the private home, political life and the economy through their concept of “tessellated neoliberalism” that examines how aspects of home ownership-- markets, interest rates, mortgages and home values—are implicated in the transformation of home as a haven to home as asset and source of insecurity. A must-read for both social scientists and legal scholars interested in housing and governance.'Setha Low, The Graduate Center, CUNY, author of Behind the Gates: Life, Security and the Pursuit of Happiness in Fortress America'These days, homes are forting up and being bunkered against an uncertain and threatening exterior world. In this remarkable global survey of such domestic fortressing, Rowland Atkinson and Sarah Blandy reveal its details WITH unprecedented clarity. Incisive, powerful, accessible and vitally necessary, 'Domestic Fortress' is an urgent and important book that should be read by anyone keen to get to grips with the ways homes are morphing into fortresses across the world'Stephen Graham, Newcastle university, author of Cities under Siege'Subject to the forces of neoliberalism, the home is becoming the Domestic Fortress the authors tirelessly investigate. Rowland Atkinson and Sarah Blandy cover the topic exhaustively in a fascinating interdisciplinary study, which is a must read for anyone interested in the links between emotional security, private security, surveillance and the architecture of an increasingly militarised environment.'Anna Minton, author of Ground Control