Home smart home. A sociology of living in the age of reflective materialism
In these times of “worrying increase of urban population, scarcity of energy resources, high social conflict, ethical drift and disciplinary loss” (Fistola 2011: 74) the theme of the smart home with its corollaries polarizes the interest in multiple disciplinary and research fields. What does the house represent? Why did we feel the need to turn it into a con- glomeration of technology? What are the effects on people and society? The changes that have taken place with the new modernity have brought to the fore new needs that have acted as a matrix of the change of the house both to the material structure and to the relational one. A house that has turned from simple into smart, a house that has moved from tradition and materiality to the liveliness and interconnection with the technological world. Why did this change take place? Has smartness undermined the previous cultural bases to become the dominant paradigm?