Porous Walls and Identity Management: A Case Study of a Role and an Identity Attached to Former School Experiences, Temporary Present in the Home

Can a home have porous boundaries and be a place in which the individual experiences to be in control? And how do these qualities play out in the understanding of home as the indirect center of everyday life, where the individual makes coherent meaning of the multitude of roles and arenas they partake in as members of fragmented societies? This study shows that the boundaries’ porous quality not only allows for spatial but also temporal permeation, challenging the storyteller’s sense of control and impacting meaning-making and identity management. In the narrative case study, temporarily, the role and identity attached to the storyteller’s former role as a student enter her home as an unintended consequence of digital paperwork performed at home. This role and identity from another time and place do not match the relationships, roles, and identities attached to her home today. The narrative analysis exemplifies how the storyteller creates meaning when narrating her story, reclaiming control and managing her identity.