Private Homes, Public Scrutiny: Surveillance of ‘the family’ in post-war Melbourne, 1945-1965 Nell Musgrove
In the years following World War II, the idealised notion of the suburban nuclear family became central to the ways in which Australians imagined and understood themselves. This post-war image of ‘the family’ was invariably considered to be centred within ‘the home’, which was posited as a private space. However, the homes of people whose lifestyles were seen as potentially threatening to the social norms and virtues which the family was believed to protect, were of ten exposed to inspection by welfare agencies. The case files which were produced by these agencies provide accounts of the ways in which private homes could be subject to surveillance from authorities, but perhaps more importantly, they suggest the existence of informal networks of surveillance existing within neighbourhoods, amongst residents themselves.