Cultivating Distinctions: Domestic Gardens and Class in the Wellington Region

Abstract

The domestic garden is an important sphere of everyday social life, common to many New Zealanders. This ethnographic analysis of gardens and gardening in the Wellington region aims to cast light on the social significance of urban and suburban New Zealand gardens. A consideration of gardens locates their owners in social space and provides a means whereby they can be distinguished from one another. Pierre Bourdieu's work on taste and distinction is drawn on to make sense of the differences and similarities apparent in home gardens in terms of class. One aspect of these is differential access to resources, such as time and money, which influence how gardens are structured, maintained and used. Gardeners' efforts to obscure and display aspects of their gardens are analysed to indicate class ideas and practices. Aesthetic taste is considered as one feature of social difference. In this regard aesthetic considerations are central to the construction and development of ornamental gardens. The aesthetic choices that participants make in areas such as garden ornaments and fashion are seen as contributing to the representation of social distinctions. The thesis suggests that Bourdieu's ideas can be usefully applied to interpret and explain aspects of domestic gardens in New Zealand in terms of social differentiation.