The sociology of housing and the housing problem

Type :

Presentation

Pages :

9 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

12/04/2008

Category :

Political science

Sub category :

Social sciences

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Summary :

Introduction.
An organizational scheme for housing research.
The societal context: An historical perspective.
1. Living conditions, health, and social reform before 1920.
2. Eventual selective government intervention in the 1920's to the 1930's.
3. Responding to intrinsic demand in the 1940s.
4. Discrimination.
5. Behavior.
The societal context: A cross-national contrast.
1. Market systems.
2. Welfare states.
3. Socialist states.
Conclusion.

Abstract

At its most elementary level, housing serves as shelter, offering protection against inclement weather and victimization by street crime. housing fulfils other functions as well. It is typically a significant economic investment, for households as well as builders. Residents also tend to hold emotional attachments to housing as home. In addition, governments have used housing as a tool to attain other policy objectives, such as reducing unemployment or inflation, and dispersing, integrating or segregating population groups. Given its significant roles in society, housing provides important angles for sociological research. First, housing must accommodate behavioral needs related to family life and neighborly interactions. Second, housing reflects and reinforces social and economic structures. For example, stratification and discrimination crystallize as a tangible housing problematic whose study sheds light on their broader manifestation. Third, housing links outcomes at the individual level to higher level phenomena. The homelessness of households, for example, can be seen in the context of regional housing and labor markets, which in turn operate under national policies and global investment patterns. It is an arena where interest group dynamics are played out in regard to the allocation of scarce resources.