Housing market renewal and social class / Chris Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, Chris, 1969-

Series:

Housing, planning, and design series

Housing, planning and design series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Home ownership--Social aspects.

Home ownership.

Social classes.

Physical Description:

x, 237 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2008.

Summary:

Housing market renewal is one of the most controversial urban policy programmes of recent years. Housing Market Renewal and Social Class critically examines the rationale for housing market renewal: to develop 'high-value' housing markes in place of the so-called 'failing markets' of low-cost housing. Whose interests are served by such a programme and who loses out?

Drawing on empirical evidence from Liverpool, the author argues that housing market renewal plays to the interests of the housing industry and the middle classes in viewing the market for houses as a field of social and economic 'opportunities', in stark contrast to a working class who are more concerned with the practicalities of 'dwelling'. Against this background of these differing attitudes to the housing market, Housing Market Renewal and Social Class explores the difficult question of whether institutions are now using the housing market renewal programme to make profits at the expense of ordinary working-class people. Reflecting on how this situation has come about, the book critically examines the purpose of current housing market renewal policies, and suggests directions for interested social scientists wishing to understand the implications of the programme.

Housing Market Renewal and Social Class provides a unique phenomenological understanding of the relationship between social class and the market for houses, and will be compelling reading for anybody concerned with the situation of working-class people living in UK cities.

Contents:

Part I Invitation to class analysis 13

1 The death and resurrection of class in sociology 15

2 Theorising social class 28

Part II Social class and the market for houses 55

3 Social class and the question of 'being' 57

4 Being in the market for houses 72

5 Being in a 'depressed' market for houses 103

Part III The class politics of housing market renewal 119

6 Housing market renewal and the 'new' market logic of urban renewal 121

7 Working-class experiences of the brave new housing market 157

8 Housing market renewal and the politics of middle-class domination 175

9 The rich get richer: profiteering from working-class suffering 195.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [219]-228) and index.

ISBN:

9780415415606

0415415608

9780415415613

0415415616

9780203932742

0203932749

OCLC:

156874697