Alva Gotby

The Politics of Emotional Life

They Call It Love

Housing is more than bricks and mortar. Feeling at Home grapples with the practical and emotional questions of housing - domestic labour, privacy, security, ownership, and health. Is it possible to imagine success without home ownership? Alva Gotby shows that solving the housing crisis is about much more than housing stock. It means revolutionising our everyday lives and labours.

Transforming the Politics of Housing

Feeling at Home

"A fascinating and exhaustive explanation as to why emotions are a political issue." –Brit Dawson, AnOther Magazine The work of love is a feminist problem, and it demands feminist solutions Comforting a family member or friend, soothing children, providing company for the elderly, ensuring that people feel well enough to work; this is all essential labour. Without it, capitalism would cease to function. They Call It Love investigates the work that makes a haven in a heartless world, examining who performs this labor, how it is organised, and how it might change. In this groundbreaking book, Alva Gotby calls this work “emotional reproduction,” unveiling its inherently political nature. It not only ensures people’s well-being but creates sentimental attachments to social hierarchy and the status quo. Drawing on the thought of the feminist movement Wages for Housework, Gotby demonstrates that emotion is a key element of capitalist reproduction. To improve the way we relate to one another will require a radical restructuring of society.

Wages for Housework and Emotional Reproduction

They Call it Love

The home where our hopes and dreams play out is at the heart many vital political questions Housing is more than bricks and mortar. Feeling at Home grapples with the practical and emotional questions of housing – domestic labour, privacy, security, ownership, and health. Is it possible to imagine success without home ownership? Alva Gotby shows that solving the housing crisis is about much more than housing stock. It means revolutionising our everyday lives and labours.

Alva Gotby

About

Books

Join the club