| Summary: | This dissertation is about the concept of home, captured through life stories of Lithuanian women in Edinburgh. I begin with the question where: where does home start, happen and where may be inhabited. I combine migration patterns from Lithuania to Scotland with the philosophy of place to capture the complex narrative of the concept of home. By linking politics of home (narratives about migration and belonging), and philosophical explanations of place (imaginaries of belonging to the place), I am questioning how home is made, done, created, or dreamed about. In the second chapter, I am focusing on my methodology to investigate the concept of home. Home is a social and political, but also deeply personal and intimate phenomenon; therefore, I present a phenomenological approach that is interested in the interaction of external circumstances and inner viewpoints of the experiences. Furthermore, I introduce my use of autoethnographic approach in capturing lived experiences. To illustrate challenges and possibilities in expressing experiences gathered through interviews, observations and personal understandings, I present three research-led thinking machines. The following five chapters focus on five Lithuanian women's life stories. Each of them explores individual experiences of migration, ways of settling down, and thoughts of home. I focus on dreams and memories that are within us, as they make us linger, but also push or stop us from changing things; dreams and memories are keywords in trying to understand why a place is called home, or Not-Yet Home, and why and how homing and unhoming is done and experienced. Through connecting materiality of a place, social circumstances and personal imaginaries, I talk about what is, or could be, happening in the place that is so often described as Not-Yet Home. In between the chapters, I present exploratory vignettes that investigate my personal nuances of the concept of home. This research contributes to the anthropological understanding of how migrants place themselves abroad, and of their experiences of living the Not-Yet Home. Moreover, I suggest innovative experimental research methods that help not only to capture inquiries that are ongoing and conceptual by nature, but also illuminate how research is approached and done.
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