The home ideology and housing discourse in Finland 1900–1950

Abstract

This article investigates the links between ideologies and housing discourses, focusing on the case of Finland from 1900–1950. During the early 20th century a specific view of the ‘Good Society’ emerged, called here the ’home ideology’. The home was seen as the core unit of society, a locale where the nation's moral basis was created. The mother was seen as the central person of the home, its spiritual leader. Home ideology is reflected in two aspects of early housing discourse: (1) the struggle against the practice of keeping lodgers which the housing reformers considered as morally corrupting, and (2) the propaganda for detached house owner occupation as the ideal form of housing. It is also hypothesised that the home ideology was crucial in the emergence of home ownership as the dominant type of tenure of modern Finland.