The Science of Home Economics

Home Economics is a scientific field within the field of humanities. Its scope covers a wide range of scientific areas which aim at achieving the optimal sustainable living for individuals, families, and human communities. The historical origins of Home Economics relate to the domestic household. In the 21st century however, Home Economics widened its sphere of reference to include wider living environments since, the capabilities, choices and priorities of individuals and families impact at different levels, starting from the household and reaching up to local and global communities. Nowadays, Home Economics draws its subject from different fields of science, merging them through interdisciplinary research - a necessary process since the phenomena and challenges of everyday life are usually not one-dimensional.

The scope of Home Economics includes:

 • consumer science and financial management of the household,

• home-based technology and sustainability of home space,

• housing, home, and hospitality,

• dietetics, food science and health,

• personal development of the human being and study of the family,

• education and social services.

The fact that interdisciplinarity, in terms of domains of scientific interest, is the main feature of Home Economics, gives it scientific and research advantages which allow the development of specialized content-related approaches and deep understanding of its academic field. The interdisciplinary nature of Home Economics, combined with the objective of achieving the optimum sustainable living of individuals, means that Home Economics as a science, with practical implications and applied proposals, can improve the quality of life in most social domains of daily everyday life, through the intervention and transformation of political, social, cultural, ecological, economic, educational and technological systems, in a local and/or global level.