Housing systems in Europe

Abstract

Since the end of the 1970s, interest in international comparative housing research has been growing in many industrialized countries. Actually, this approach is by no means new to the field (Schmidt 1989: 60). Indeed, a few international comparative studies had been published in the 1960s (by Wendt, 1963; and Donnison, 1967, among others). Yet almost two decades passed before studies of this type started to proliferate. Schmidt explains the gap by the divergent course of housing studies during the 1970s. At that time, housing research lost contact with theoretical and methodological developments in the social sciences. But the tide turned at the end of the 1970s; ever since, international comparative housing and building have appeared in quick succession. (Benchmark Studies include those by Kemeny, 1981; Donnison and Ungerson, 1982; Ambrose and Barlow, 1986; Hallet, 1977; Ball et al., 1988; Kroes et al, 1988; Lundqvist, 1988, 1990; Van Vliet, 1987, 1990; and Van Vliet and Van Weesep, 1990). The reasons for this revival of international comparative research are diverse. Academics have an inherent interest in comparative work in general. The interest of politicians and policy makers reflects their more practical concerns. Increasingly, they need to understand how specific housing policy instruments are employed in different countries and what the effects of these instruments are. Furthermore, the great expansion of international cooperation between Western countries and the impending economic integration of Europe in 1992 have also fostered interest in international comparison. After all, it has not been ruled out that housing will be subject to a degree of policy harmonization, just like other areas of policy, in the new Europe. Against this backdrop the OTB Research Institute for Policy Sciences and Technology of the Delft University of Technology has conducted a comparative investigation of the housing systems and their effects in a number of European countries. The research is sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment in the Netherlands. The main objective of this ongoing project is to deepen our understanding and expand our knowledge of