Interpreting an escape from an eviction trap as a social account: A Gramscian reading of a credit union’s policies in support of social housing tenants

Abstract

In capitalist economies, residences that have value as homes are also commodities. Use of Gramsci’s concept of historic bloc highlights how in the current, neoliberal period, governments’ increasing perception of houses as commodities has affected allocation of social housing and contrasts with the earlier social democratic period when social housing’s use as homes was a more prominent consideration. Policy changes in the neoliberal period reduced social housing stock, increased rents and the precarity of income of many people dependent on social housing, particularly in London. Such policies created a trap of eviction if tenants accrued rent arrears. Empirical research reports one credit union’s initiatives to ameliorate the threat of tenants’ eviction. Marxist interpretations of social accounts are used to understand the eviction trap and evaluate the credit union’s initiatives.