Fashioning Nature Home in the Age of Anthropocene: Environment, Sensory and Aesthetic Experiences in Home & Garden, the 1980s – 1990s

Abstract

Our view of big city environmental problems is powerfully dominated by environmental policy as a response to the Anthropocene. From today’s perspective, it is easy to underestimate the relationship between the environmental history and the history of family and home. This paper uses the famous Home & Garden magazine to trace the ideas of the middle-class reactions to the anthropocenic changes in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, in the 1980s and 1990s. The concept of bringing nature home and Bangkok’s environmental deterioration were not contradictory, but rather were closely related. Home and garden decoration carried with it certain ideas, ranging from natural purity and serenity to spirituality and mind regeneration. They were an important method people used to negotiate their lives in the age of Anthropocene.

Keywords: The Anthropocene, Home & Garden Magazine, environmental problems, urban living, sensory experiences