Housing Wealth and Welfare (New Horizons in Social Policy series)

Both growth and unevenness in the distribution of housing wealth have become characteristic of advanced societies in recent decades. Housing Wealth and Welfare examines, in various contexts, how housing property ownership has become central both to household wellbeing and to the reshaping of social, economic and political relations. Expert contributors analyse the critical interactions between housing and wealth that lie at the heart of contemporary forms of capitalism, especially its global, neoliberal incarnation. Comparing and contrasting case studies from across the European continent, this book illustrates how these interactions are reshaping the function of housing as a welfare object, including how the commodification and financialisation of housing in the twenty-first-century has transformed its role and amplified distributional outcomes. Practical and engaging, Housing Wealth and Welfare will be of interest to researchers and students of housing studies, social policy, sociology, social geography and political science. It will also appeal to policy makers and practitioners with both local and international perspectives Contents:1. Why housing wealth and welfare?Richard Ronald and Caroline DewildePART I OLD AND NEW CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF HOUSING AND WELFARE2. The rise and fall of Ireland's property based welfare state: Home ownership rates, policies and meanings in a historical perspectiveMichelle Norris3. Home ownership, housing policy and path dependence in Finland, Norway and SwedenBo Bengtsson, Hannu Ruonavaara and Jardar Sorvoll4. Housing wealth and welfare over the life courseStephan Koeppe and Beverley A. Searle5. Housing wealth and welfare state restructuring - Between Asset-Based Welfare and the Social Investment StrategyChristian LennartzPART II INSTITUTIONAL VARIEGATIONS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOUSING, WELFARE PROVISION AND INEQUALITY6. Financial resilience and security: The impacts of the housing market downturn on low-income home owners in Northern IrelandAlison Wallace7. Trends in social inequalities regarding home ownership: A comparison of East and West GermanyKathrin Kolb and Sandra Buchholz8. Home ownership in post-socialist countries - The negative impact of the transition period on old-age welfareSrna Mandic and Maja Mrzel9. Experiences of home ownership and housing mobility after privatization in RussiaJane R. Zavisca and Theodore P. Gerber10. The changing nature of outright home ownership in Romania: Housing wealth and housing inequalityAdriana Mihaela SoaitaEpilogue Housing wealth and welfare: spatially and temporally contingent John DolingIndex Both growth and unevenness in the distribution of housing wealth have become characteristic of advanced societies in recent decades. This book examines, in various contexts, how central housing property ownership has become to household well-being as well as in reshaping social, economic and political relations. Expert contributors analyze the critical interactions between housing and wealth that lie at the heart of contemporary forms of capitalism, especially its global, neoliberal incarnation. Comparing and contrasting case studies from across the European continent, this book illustrates how these interactions are reshaping the function of housing as a welfare object, including how the financialisation and commodification of housing in the twenty-first-century has transformed its role and amplified distributional outcomes. Practical and engaging, Housing Wealth and Welfare is a must-read for researchers and students of housing studies, social policy, sociology, social geography and political science. It will also appeal to policy makers within national and supra-national organisations and institutions such as the European Union, Housing Europe and the International Monetary Fund.Contributors include: B. Bengtsson, S. Buchholz, C. Dewilde, J. Doling, T.P. Gerber, K. Kolb, S. Köppe, C. Lennartz, S. Mandic, M. Mrzel, M. Norris, R. Ronald, H. Ruonavaara, B.A. Searle, A.M. Soaita, J. Sørvoll, A. Wallace, J.R. Zavisca