When did you last hear the home mentioned by an economist or politician? Ever? And yet the home is the place where the basic cell of society, the family, does its own essential “work”: giving individuals the security, values and virtues that enable them to contribute to the positive progress of their community, country and the world.

This silence about the essential work of the home seems to be most marked in the Anglosphere, but a globalised economy and media are spreading the blinkered market approach to everything throughout the world.

There are many initiatives to counter this trend and promote the vital role of work in the home. The HomeMakers Project, launched in New York at the end of November, comes from the London-based Home Renaissance Foundation. According to the HomeMakers blog:

The Project, a collaborative effort between HRF with Fontana Nova an International Centre for Research and Humanities in Italy, and Digito, an Argentinean based audiovisual communications company, is a 40-week campaign over social media. One video will be released each week featuring different aspects and ways to support the home in terms of government and workplace policies.

One of the videos is displayed above. You can catch up with others here and subscribe to the weekly videos.

Note: This is not a rearguard attempt to get women back to the kitchen sink but, as the various academics and personalities point out, an effort to focus on the multi-faceted work of the home to which all family members contribute and in whose benefits they all share -- to the enrichment of society in every way.

Congratulations to HRF and partners on a much needed “renaissance” of the home.