The developmentist home, a myth. Story of francoist economic modernization in the construction of privacy and domesticity

Abstract

The developmentalist Francoism speech attempted to permeate the private sphere in order to achieve the legitimisation of the Regime as a political system. Under this premise, we have cleared the story of modernization that tries to make housing and home consonant with the implementation of the First Plan for Economic and Social Development (1964-1967). To address this, a content analysis of the discourse is carried out, while the research strategy addresses messages about the reorganisation of spatial-temporal categories and the introduction of unlocking mechanisms in the home environment. The application of this perspective allows us to recognise the elements of developmentalist culture - in its material and immaterial facets - applied to the construction of modern privacy. It reveals the importance attached to new instruments such as household appliances - symbolic signs of progress - and to new disciplines, guided by expert systems. This requires, in a reciprocal way, experiences of space and time in line with Western patterns, which reinforce gender asymmetries. Privacy, defined as a place and time for rest, comfort and fun for men, allows an idea of domesticity, linked to women, to emerge clearly, which is still projected in the present days.