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Order and Territory

Matthew Sweet invites sociologist Rachel Hurdley and writer and researcher Ed Attlee to reflect on our need to order our homes and carve out personal space within them.

This is the story of how the things we accumulate around us say more than we might imagine about who we are.

"The fate of the object," said the French thinker Jean Baudrillard, "has been claimed by no-one." Unless, of course, the object in question is the Mona Lisa or the Alfred Jewel. In these programmes, Matthew Sweet will be looking at the other stuff. The cups. The spoons. The knick-knacks. The things we might keep, even if we don't quite have the room for them.

Through the prism of what people have in their homes, Objects of Desire explores the work of sociologists and anthropologists like Pierre Bourdieu and Mary Douglas, and philosopher Gaston Bachelard, in order to understand the curious mixture of display, memory, emotion and chance that informs the objects we surround ourselves with.

Episode Three - Order and Territory. In which Julie reflects on some seriously tidy cupboards; Gerry and Jan consider the presence of her mother's ashes in the conservatory; and Matthew invites the sociologist Rachel Hurdley and the writer and researcher Ed Attlee to reflect on our need to order our homes and carve out personal space within them.

Available now

12 minutes

Last on

Wed 12 Oct 2016 12:04

Jan keeps her mother's ashes in her conservatory.

Jan keeps her mother's ashes in her conservatory.

We keep coming across flamingos in this series; this one lives in Julie’s bathroom.

We keep coming across flamingos in this series; this one lives in Julie’s bathroom.

Julie's very tidy shelves.

Julie's very tidy shelves.

Broadcast

  • Wed 12 Oct 2016 12:04

14 Ways You Know You’ve Got Too Much Stuff

Here's how you can tell if you’re heading into the kingdom of clutter.