This paper explores the neglected topic of the organization and use of household space for work (paid and unpaid) during the early modern period. It engages critically with the concept of ‘the open house’ in relation to recent arguments about processes of spatial and social closure of houses and households in the early modern period associated with the development of a capitalist socio-economic system. Drawing on a variety of sources including diaries, autobiographies, inventories and court records the analysis considers how work was organized in the domestic context and how experience varied according to gender, age, status and location as well as time of day, week or year. The paper argues that a perceived dichotomy between an open house and a closed home secluded from the social and business world of community and commerce is inadequate in the consideration of space and attitudes in this period. Individuals in larger houses could control access to certain spaces at specific times and work could be concentrated in certain rooms. But in practice in most households the complicated demands of the household economy required openness to outsiders that rendered the boundaries of houses more permeable and potentially more unstable than they are today. The analysis considers the case of England and compares rural and urban homes in a particular regional context, but it opens up several ways for historians to think about the relationship between work and home in other European regions.

中文翻译：

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早期现代英格兰家庭工作空间的组织和使用：1550-1750

本文探讨了现代早期家庭工作空间（有偿和无偿）的组织和使用这一被忽视的话题。它批判性地涉及“开放房屋”的概念，与最近关于现代早期与资本主义社会经济体系发展相关的房屋和家庭的空间和社会封闭过程的争论。利用包括日记、自传、清单和法庭记录在内的各种来源，该分析考虑了工作在国内环境中的组织方式，以及经验如何根据性别、年龄、地位和地点以及一天、一周或一年中的时间而变化。该论文认为，在考虑这一时期的空间和态度时，在与社区和商业的社会和商业世界隔绝的开放式房屋和封闭式房屋之间的感知二分法是不够的。大房子里的人可以控制在特定时间进入某些空间，工作可以集中在某些房间。但实际上，在大多数家庭中，家庭经济的复杂需求需要对外开放，这使得房屋的边界比现在更具渗透性，并且可能更不稳定。该分析考虑了英格兰的案例，并比较了特定区域背景下的农村和城市家庭，但它为历​​史学家提供了几种思考欧洲其他地区工作与家庭之间关系的方法。