Temporary Homes: A Case Study of Young People’s Dwelling Strategies in Northern Italy

The article explores the relationship between the concept of home as a “becoming,” and young people’s identity construction, in situations of residential instability caused by contemporary mobility. In line with the results of recent studies, the article argues that in some cases, this instability can be an opportunity to recreate the conditions of dwelling by transforming an anonymous space into a temporary home, which gets its meaning from the individual’s “ongoing personal project.” Drawing on a qualitative study which explored the temporal and spatial experience of young people in Italy, the article analyzes the narratives of a number of university students temporarily residing in the Lombardy region, highlighting the processes involved in recreating the feeling of being at home which take place in everyday life, by means of structuring domestic times and spaces, resignifying “objects” as “things,” negotiating household rules, and organizing care practices.