Home, homeownership and housing policy

Abstract

Chapter 4 explores home, homeownership and housing policy, providing a critique of the neoliberal rationalities that have informed the development of housing policies and scrutinising ideas about the normative home. It interrogates ideal imaginings of home in housing policy responses that support homeownership, highlighting social inequalities in Western contexts. It traces historical and ideological influences on the development of housing and homeownership policies, particularly focusing on Australia. Classed and socioeconomic social privileges pertaining to home are produced and maintained in policy making processes, with unequal social consequences and effects. When interrogating the imagined normality of homeownership, it highlights housing policy responses to Australia’s First Nations Peoples.