There is no place like home: Complexities in exploring home and place attachment

Home is a key aspect of place attachment literature and research. However, research on place attachment and home often becomes problematic due to the complexities of home as a concept and, particularly, the conflation of home ownership and home. This paper attempts to disentangle the relationship between home ownership and place attachment drawing on a unique data set Qualitative data are drawn from in-depth interviews with participants from communes in Southern Colorado The results high light how place attachment particularly feelings of at-homeness, is not synonymous with home ownership Therefore researchers should be cautious of equating home, home ownership and place attachment. (C) 2009 Western Social Science Association Published by Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.