Residential Institutions in Britain, 1725-1970 : Inmates and Environments

Institutions were intended to mould their inhabitants, and were organized in line with professional and economic constraints, public opinion, or the need to appeal to potential inmates. The authorities often modelled their arrangements on domestic ideals, and the imagined home was frequently the yardstick against which occupants measured their experiences of institutional life. The essays in this collection explore both organizational intentions and inhabitants' experiences in a diverse range of British residential institutions during a period when such provision was dramatically increasing. The book addresses inmates, environments and interactions, with essays focusing on questions of authority, resistance, agency, domesticity and the material world.