prior acts of others. These objects both liberate and impede conduct – they are the goals toward
which the very acts that create them strive, but as named and often tangible things, they also
have a life that is nearly their own, standing over and against human actions (Plummer 1991).
I examine a particular context in which objects both invite and impede action, namely
the home as a place where some people both work as well as reside. Home-based workers write
articles, construct legal briefs, create financial spreadsheets, paint and sculpt, and do a variety
of other work activities in their dining rooms, kitchens, garages, bedrooms, and living rooms.
They are, perforce, surrounded by familiar things – tables, chairs, coffee pots, children, dogs,
pictures – whose meanings they must continually adjust and readjust if they are to both get their
work done and craft other role performances related to the home as a home. The question of
how home-based employees transform object meanings to form anchor points for diverse lines
of conduct is an important and under-explored question, given that so many people now work
at home, at least part of the time.
In this paper, I present data from in-depth interviews with twenty home-based
employees to illustrate the active processes these individuals utilize to construct and reconstruct
object meanings in service of their roles. While pragmatist and symbolic interactionist
perspectives form the backbone of this inquiry, I further utilize a cognitive lens to focus on the
more micro-level psychological motives -such as needs, goals, or emotions - that lead my
respondents to engage in actions and establish meaning. By looking at meaning and motivation
simultaneously, this paper extends previous perspectives and yields new insights into how
object meanings are transformed in the routine, everyday affairs of social actors such as home-
based employees.
OBJECTS AND MEANINGS
2
Convention