The Dwelling Question: A Critical Theory of the Bourgeois Home

Dwelling is a fundamental mode of existence and a key site where contemporary societal crises manifest – from the endangered habitability of the Earth to digital exploitation and mass surveillance, from rising loneliness to the erosion of the public sphere. To grasp these phenomena, a critical theory of dwelling is needed, as the 19th-century paradigm of the bourgeois home continues to shape and amplify them. This article develops such a theory by conceptualizing dwelling as integral to processes of subjectivation, deeply embedded in specific historical, social, and technological contexts. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s analysis of bourgeois interiors, Félix Guattari’s machinic and ecosophical thought, Michel Foucault’s investigation of space and biopower, François Béguin’s concept of the ‘domestic world’, and Paul Klee’s dialectic of home, the article critiques the hegemonic model of bourgeois dwelling and offers a framework for reimagining dwelling in light of current existential and ecological threats.