Short description:

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.

Long description:

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. S?rvoll, A. Wallace, J.R. Zavisca

'Home ownership has always been connected to both welfare and wealth, but the ties have been strengthened in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Now, the editors and authors of Housing Wealth and Welfare discuss the current state of affairs. They sketch different scenarios for different countries and cohorts but never lose touch of the general trends. Required reading for anyone interested in the various faces of home ownership.'

Table of Contents:

Contents:

1. Why housing wealth and welfare?
Richard Ronald and Caroline Dewilde

PART I OLD AND NEW CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF HOUSING AND WELFARE
2. The rise and fall of Ireland?s property based welfare state: Home ownership rates, policies and meanings in a historical perspective
Michelle Norris

3. Home ownership, housing policy and path dependence in Finland, Norway and Sweden
Bo Bengtsson, Hannu Ruonavaara and Jardar S?rvoll

4. Housing wealth and welfare over the life course
Stephan Köppe and Beverley A. Searle

5. Housing wealth and welfare state restructuring ? Between Asset-Based Welfare and the Social Investment Strategy
Christian Lennartz

PART II INSTITUTIONAL VARIEGATIONS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOUSING, WELFARE PROVISION AND INEQUALITY
6. Financial resilience and security: The impacts of the housing market downturn on low-income home owners in Northern Ireland
Alison Wallace

7. Trends in social inequalities regarding home ownership: A comparison of East and West Germany
Kathrin Kolb and Sandra Buchholz

8. Home ownership in post-socialist countries ? The negative impact of the transition period on old-age welfare
Srna Mandič and Maja Mrzel

9. Experiences of home ownership and housing mobility after privatization in Russia
Jane R. Zavisca and Theodore P. Gerber

10. The changing nature of outright home ownership in Romania: Housing wealth and housing inequality
Adriana Mihaela Soaita

Epilogue
Housing wealth and welfare: spatially and temporally contingent
John Doling

Index