Giving Up? That´s for Marie Kondo
New Study in Collaboration with ICWF/IESE Business School
At Home Renaissance Foundation we have carried out a study with the International Work and Family Centre of the IESE Business School, in order to find out how the work of the home influences the person, the family and their well-being at work.
By clicking these links you can access the study`s results, the conclusions, the infographics and the recommendations from the experts:
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Phubbing threatens our mental health and family wellbeing
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The work of the home is the new ally for achieving better levels of employee wellbeing
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A positive attitude towards housework has a positive influence on parents’ relationship with their children
The experts who have carried out this research are:
Mireia Las Heras | Professor of Managing People in Organizations at IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain – where she serves as the Director of the International Center for Work and Family.
Yasin Rofcanin | Professor in Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management at the University of Bath and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Organisation and HRM Division, Ph.D. in Organisational Behaviour and HRM at the University of Warwick -Warwick Business School.
Marc Grau | Professor and a Researcher at the Childcare and Family Policies Chair at Universitat International Catalunya and a WAPPP Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.
In conversation with…
Newsletter December 2022
Dear friend,
As the year comes to an end we are grateful that although economically there is still a long way to go, 2022 has allowed us to get our lives back on track. We have seen each other’s faces again, we have been able to meet again, trust and renew connections.
Our Christmas newsletter is always a summary of the year, a time to look back and remember what we have achieved. We are grateful and pleased to report that as the activity of HRF is progressing, credibility is growing and we see daily the enormous interest and commitment shown towards our topic: HOME.
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine is one which, of course, stays in our news and in our thoughts at this time. In September our Experts Meeting in Washington, ‘The Home and Displaced People’, was timely as it addressed a new topic for HRF: the migration crises and the impact of displacement. It proved a very enriching meeting that opened the doors to a new group of highly prestigious experts with whom we are already working on a future publication.
In addition, we have had the opportunity to reinforce earlier topics with the publication of ‘Happiness and Domestic Life’, which we have already presented in Argentina and Italy. Here you can learn more about our event at Roma Tre University. In the first quarter of 2023, there are plans for launches in the UK, Poland and Spain. At the same time our research on digital homes, the Communication Project ‘The Impact of Technology in the Home’ which has prompted 5,000 downloads, continues to leave its mark.
We are delighted that you find our work helpful, and it is good to see how many of you also consult our experts’ working papers published on the website. We are committed to providing new content and fresh approaches to the study of the work of the home. In this context, we shall be soon releasing details of the first tranche of research carried out in partnership with the International Centre for Work and Family at IESE Business School.
Before I end this newsletter, I would like to announce an agreement we have recently reached with NTU and the UN to investigate the impact of climate emergencies on homes and vice versa. We want to find out how homes and families can be great allies of public policies to curb climate impacts. The Expert Meeting is planned for late summer 2023, and we shall send more details soon for how to contribute to this work.
My thanks on behalf of us all at HRF to everyone we have had the pleasure and privilege of working with this year. It only remains for me to wish you a very Happy Christmas and that 2023 will be full of good news for homes, which will mean a better future for everyone.
As the year comes to an end we are grateful that although economically there is still a long way to go, 2022 has allowed us to get our lives back on track. We have seen each other’s faces again, we have been able to meet again, trust and renew connections.
Our Christmas newsletter is always a summary of the year, a time to look back and remember what we have achieved. We are grateful and pleased to report that as the activity of HRF is progressing, credibility is growing and we see daily the enormous interest and commitment shown towards our topic: HOME.
The ongoing crisis in Ukraine is one which, of course, stays in our news and in our thoughts at this time. In September our Experts Meeting in Washington, ‘The Home and Displaced People’, was timely as it addressed a new topic for HRF: the migration crises and the impact of displacement. It proved a very enriching meeting that opened the doors to a new group of highly prestigious experts with whom we are already working on a future publication.
In addition, we have had the opportunity to reinforce earlier topics with the publication of ‘Happiness and Domestic Life’, which we have already presented in Argentina and Italy. Here you can learn more about our event at Roma Tre University. In the first quarter of 2023, there are plans for launches in the UK, Poland and Spain. At the same time our research on digital homes, the Communication Project ‘The Impact of Technology in the Home’ which has prompted 5,000 downloads, continues to leave its mark.
We are delighted that you find our work helpful, and it is good to see how many of you also consult our experts’ working papers published on the website. We are committed to providing new content and fresh approaches to the study of the work of the home. In this context, we shall be soon releasing details of the first tranche of research carried out in partnership with the International Centre for Work and Family at IESE Business School.
Before I end this newsletter, I would like to announce an agreement we have recently reached with NTU and the UN to investigate the impact of climate emergencies on homes and vice versa. We want to find out how homes and families can be great allies of public policies to curb climate impacts. The Expert Meeting is planned for late summer 2023, and we shall send more details soon for how to contribute to this work.
My thanks on behalf of us all at HRF to everyone we have had the pleasure and privilege of working with this year. It only remains for me to wish you a very Happy Christmas and that 2023 will be full of good news for homes, which will mean a better future for everyone.
Bryan K. Sanderson CBE
The Home: the cradle of Happiness | Book Launch in Italy
Addressing happiness is always a difficult challenge. The experts who took part in our event last Thursday at the Roma Tre University were faced with the complexity of defining the term because it is ambiguous, broad, and often even paradoxical.
Professor Antonio Petagine (Università Roma Tre) said that we all want happiness, we all seek it, and we all long for it, but we do not always obtain it, and on many occasions, this impossibility of finding it is due to the fact that we fall into the error of giving it a hedonistic meaning, seeking our own satisfaction. But this attitude leaves an emptiness that rarely makes us happy.
Given the thousands of suicides and the high consumption of antidepressants, Professor Vinicio Busacchi (Università de Cagliari) suggested turning to philosophical reflection to discover those situations that make our lives unhappy and try to improve them. “Philosophy can help us understand the meaning of life and become a school of life,” said Busacchi, recalling the title of a famous essay by Lou Marinoff entitled “More Plato and less Prozac.”
And then, the concept of relational happiness came up, when Professor Nicola di Stefano (CNR Roma) explained that Aristotle said that, among other things, happiness depends on the number of friends one has and the quality of that friendship. Can our happiness depend on the environment around us? Is the home the first place to find happiness because it is the first place where we relate to others? The home is a test bed, a private place, where we feel protected, it is a nest,” Di Stefano stressed.
Ambassador Roberto Rossi, author of “Aristotele: l’arte di vivere. Fondamenti e pratica dell’etica aristotelica come via alla felicità” (FrancoAngeli, 2018), recalled that happiness is not a moment in life, but a constant state of the soul, a concatenation of actions that help us to find the ultimate goal of life, happiness. Aristotle insisted that happiness is identified with the good life, i.e. the virtuous life. The “recipe” is therefore to try to seek the best possible good in everything we do, unselfishly.
As the editor of the book ‘Happiness and Domestic Life‘, Professor and Philosopher Maria Teresa Russo, explained, the question we have to ask ourselves is: what home for what happiness? Because we can understand the home as a refuge or, conversely, as a place of conflict and happiness as well-being in a material sense. On the other hand, the home is that physical place where we live, think and love: where we guard our own intimacy and define our identity. A complex but unitary system, where happiness is taking care of each other, disinterestedly.
La felicità. Launch in Rome
We are delighted to announce the international launch of our latest book Happiness & Domestic Life, next Thursday 1st December in Rome.
Professor and philosopher María Teresa Russo, chief editor of the publication, leads the event at the Università Roma Tre, Via del Castro Pretorio 20 in room P2.
The event consists of a round table discussion of the concept of happiness and the familiar places and meaningful relationships at the roots of ethics. Participants are Antonio Petagine, Università Roma Tre, Vinicio Busacchi, Università di Cagliari and Nicola Di Stefano, CNR Roma. The moderator is Professor Cecilia Costa, Roma Tre Department of Training Science.
Guest speaker is Roberto Rossi, the author of Aristotle: The Art of Living. Foundations and Practice of Aristotelian Ethics as a Path to Happiness. Franco Angeli, Milan 2019.
If you are in Rome and would like to attend, it is an excellent opportunity to see us and to be a part of celebrating this significant contribution to the field of home and well-being .
For more details about the book click here.
Migration and uprooting
Is relational happiness possible?
Newsletter October 2022
Dear Homemaker,
I hope you have had a happy summer and were able to enjoy time with your family. As our world faces so many challenges, we and our households face a difficult autumn. As always though, we know that it will be the values and care of the home which will help see us through.
We have worked hard this year to bring our latest publication to press. ‘Happiness and Domestic Life‘ was available from the end of August. This book uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine the relationship between the quality of domestic life and the home environment in the context of current changes. Our books add substantially to academic discourse on the “missing dimension” of the home and are published by the prestigious Routledge publishing house. Intended for this academic audience the book is also available in an online version. If you are following this aspect of our work and would like a copy, please see here for a discount code: ADC22
Today, Thursday 6 October, is the first online launch of ‘Happiness and Domestic Life’ with the Argentinian association, MIF, Mujeres Independientes y Federales, 9.30h in Argentina, 13.30h in UK, 14.30h in Rome. This Spanish language launch will be led by the distinguished philosopher and editor of the book Professor Maria Teresa Russo, and our head of Communication, Ángela de Miguel. If you would like to join, please register and the link will be sent to you. We are also working on future presentations in Italy, Poland, UK and Spain. If any researchers are reading this and you would like to discuss organising a round table to address these issues in your university, please do get in touch with us.
The main focus of our autumn has been our Expert Meeting: ‘The Home and Displaced People’ on 22 – 23 September. Supported by the Social Trends Institute, we were the guests of the Catholic University of America in Washington DC. This meeting of experts in migration theory, policy and practice marks a new focus so far unexplored by HRF, but one which generated very valuable and promising engagement.
Migration crises and the uprooting of people who are forced to leave their country of origin is a reality that affects millions of people. Experts discussed dignity, respect, solidarity, identity, integration, work, care, mental health, violence, racism, policies, entrepreneurship, investment. It was two days of rich multidisciplinary conversation and continuous learning that our experts will soon put down on paper but in the meantime here is the video.
There is lots of information here and food for thought for the coming months, so I shall just close by wishing you and your homes a good and fruitful season,
Bryan K. Sanderson