The theme of happiness and well-being is framed within two significant changes, themselves affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic: the relationship between the individual’s quality of life and engagement within the community, and the role of new technologies in everyday life. The authors highlight the relational nature of happiness and the centrality of the home environment in its promotion.

The book covers a wide variety of topics on the design, introduction and use of digital technologies in the home, combining the technological dimension with the cognitive, emotional, cultural and symbolic dimensions of the objects that incorporate digital technologies and project them onto people’s lives. It offers a coherent approach, that of the home, which gives unity to the discussion.

Introducing novel theoretical, empirical and practical investigations with case studies from UK, Europe, South America and South East Asia, the book offers a novel global outlook on how contemporary homes are facing genuine challenges from operational, economic, spatial, social and wellbeing perspectives.

The multidisciplinary and integrative approach taken by this book avoids simplistic accounts of the home, studies the value of the home, the service it offers, and its contribution to the wellbeing and prosperity of communities. Reviewing its internal functions and external relationships, the authors connect the themes of family, housing, income and wealth, community, relationships, family policies, socioeconomic setting, culture and history from across the world.

Taking a professional approach to housework can enhance the wellbeing of present and future generations. Using this approach to competently complete housework with an ecological awareness contributes to creating sustainable societies through the individuals it touches at home. The Sustainable Living e-book discusses these ideas in a compilation of presentations from the third Excellence in the Home Conference.

This e-book examines how anthropological aspects, the use of management skills, and, of course, architecture and design all contribute to transforming a house into a home. Its task is to explore the difference between a house and a home: by what extraordinary process does a building, a house, become a home?

The home, we believe, is the real schoolroom for life, with the family its teachers. It is in the home where we learn the personal values, attitudes, and behaviours that will stand us in good stead throughout our lives, picking them up by watching those around us. Schools can't teach such things too well. Families can and do, often unwittingly through example.

This book demonstrates a bold theme: that what goes on in the home is at least as important as, and probably more important than, what goes on in national parliaments or the United Nations council chamber. “Domestic Science” – cooking, shopping making beds, child rearing, and cleaning up – is something to be discussed as seriously, by qualified experts and high-profile international researchers, as global warming, terrorism, and the plight of Africa.