Ideal Homes? shows how both popular images and experiences of home life relate to the ability of society's members to produce and respond to social change.

The book provides for the first time an analysis of the space of the home and the experiences of home life by writers from a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, architecture, geography and anthropology. It covers a range of subjects, including gender roles, different generations relationships to home, the changing nature of the family, transition and risk and alternative visions of home.