The invisible and the familiar: how social ties shape social cohesion in public rental housing in Beijing, China

Public housing refers to housing that is built, purchased, or leased and supplied by a public housing business entity under the Special Act on Public Housing with financial support from the State or local governments or the Housing and Urban Fund. Public housing can be broadly divided into public rental housing and public sale housing. Public rental housing is divided into eight types: permanent rental housing, national rental housing, happy housing, and etc.. In addition, so-called public-private self-owned housing was introduced in 2021. Korea's public rental housing system has changed according to the policy regimes of governments on public rental housing, and with these changes, new types of public rental housing have been introduced and the supply of certain types of public rental housing has increased or decreased. And there were also changes in the name and legal basis of public rental housing. The integrated public rental housing type was introduced in 2020 to unify the various types of public rental housing and simplify the occupancy qualifications. Follow-up measures are needed for the establishment of the integrated public rental housing type. Meanwhile, there are doubts about the effectiveness of so-called public-private self-owned housing, such as accumulated equity housing unit for sale and profit-sharing housing unit for sale, introduced in 2021. And until now, public housing was supplied by the State and LH Corporation, but now there is an opinion that the social housing supplied by local governments and social economy entities should be revitalized. However, due to the nature of social housing, social economy entities will experience financial difficulties just like LH Corporation, and these difficulties will eventually be resolved only with the support of the State or local governments. However, such support for social economic entities would be a burden to the State or local governments, and therefore, social consensus on such support should be preceded. In addition, social conflicts are occurring due to the supply of public housing, and social mix policies are being attempted to solve this problem, but another type of social conflict is occurring as a result. Ultimately, social conflicts caused by public housing can only be resolved when there is a social consensus on the overall public housing policy.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to improving the nation's housing stability and the living standards of the low-income earners by suggesting an improvement plan for the supply methodology among the public rental housing systems in Korea.Chapter 2 established the concept of public rental housing. This part of the study systematically organized a total of 31 laws and regulations composing the current public rental housing system and further examined the transition process of the system itself. In addition, this study also analyzed the inventory and annual supplies of public rental housing that are currently available on the market. On that basis, this study presented three problems that are considered to be the most important among the other problems related to the operation of various public rental housing systems that are currently problematic to suggest a methodology to solve them. These three problems are as follows: First, the existing rental housing, 'jeonse', encourages gap investment. Second, there is confusion in the legal system in which the upper and lower laws collide. Third, the legal system is too complicated and excessive with a total of 631 articles. There are three ways to solve these problems. The first way is to propose a plan to partly amend a current law of 'Special Act on Public Housing' and suggest its main contents to make it less complicated and vast. This can be done by the enactment of a special law with the provisional title 'Act on the Supply of Public Rental Housing' separately regulating the selection and operation of occupants of public rental housing. The second solution would be the revision of the particular provisions. The provisions that are currently in conflict are as follows: Article 47, Paragraph 2, Items 4 and 5 of the Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on Public Housing, and Article 25, Paragraph 8, Item 1, and Paragraph 9 of the Enforcement Rule of the Special Act on Public Housing. The last way is to propose a method to convert the leasehold rental system to the housing purchase rental system since the current system is causing problems such as encouraging gap speculation among public rental housing available now.

BackgroundGlobally, public housing is utilized to provide affordable housing for low-income households. Studies have shown an association between public housing and negative health outcomes. There is paucity of data pertaining to outpatient primary and tertiary healthcare resources utilization among public rental housing residents in Singapore.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was performed, involving patients under the care of SingHealth Regional Health System (SHRS) in Year 2012. Healthcare utilization outcomes evaluated included number of outpatient primary and specialist care clinic visits, emergency department visits and hospitalization in Year 2011. Multivariate logistical analyses were used to examine the association between public rental housing and healthcare utilization.ResultsOf 147,105 patients, 10,400 (7.1%) patients stayed in public rental housing. There were more elderly (54.8 ± 18.0 vs 49.8 ± 17.1, p < 0.001) and male patients [5279 (50.8%) vs 56,892 (41.6%), p < 0.001] residing in public rental housing. Co-morbidities such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia were more prevalent among public rental housing patients. (p < 0.05).After adjustment for covariates, public rental housing was not associated with frequent outpatient primary care clinic or specialist outpatient clinic attendances (p > 0.05). However, it was associated with increased number of emergency department visits (OR: 2.41, 95% CI: 2.12–2.74) and frequent hospitalization (OR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.33–1.83).ConclusionResiding in public rental housing was not associated with increased utilization of outpatient healthcare resources despite patients’ higher disease burden and frequency of emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Further research is required to elucidate their health seeking behaviours.

The supply of public rental housing is a policy in which the state can actively intervene to stabilize housing for the low-income brackets. The supply of public rental housing is stipulated in the “SPECIAL ACT ON PUBLIC HOUSING”. From now on, we need to reflect the social trends such as the increase in single-person households and the elderly. In addition, there is a need for a policy that can improve problems related to existing public rental housing such as the social exclusion of public rental housing complexes. Accordingly, the direction of improvement of the public rental housing supply law is as follows.<BR> First, it is necessary to establish a public rental housing supply policy that is subdivided according to the characteristics of the region. In this case, it is necessary to emphasize the role of local governments that can grasp the local situation concretely. Second, there is a need for an adequate supply of small public rental housing for single-person households. In this case, the quality of housing should be improved. Third, public rental housing for the elderly should be provided, preferentially in places located close to the area where they were living. And the elderly should be allowed to live near medical and welfare facilities. Finally, public rental housing can be secured and supplied while conducting urban regeneration projects. In this case, public rental housing can be supplied by utilizing vacant houses.

Purpose This study aims to identify the significant exit barriers encountered by tenants in public rental housing and analyze the moderating effects of sociodemographic factors on tenants’ decisions to leave public rental housing. Design/methodology/approach This study applied a quantitative methodology. Questionnaire survey was used as its main instrument for data collection. Responses were gathered from 328 tenants in the Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) through stratified random sampling. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling partial least square (SEM-PLS). Findings The findings reveal that housing availability and the exit programs by DBKL are the most significant factors influencing exit barriers. Tenant income also impacts their decision to remain, as available housing often does not match their income levels. Policymakers and relevant agencies should collaborate to help tenants increase their income, facilitating their transition out of public rental housing. Research limitations/implications This study is limited to the factors influencing the tenant from exiting PRH. Furthermore, the study specifically targeted those who rent public housing under DBKL administration may neglect the perspectives of other stakeholders, such as DBKL management, property owners and policymakers. Therefore, the findings are insufficient in representing tenants other than those under the DBKL’s administration. While the causes may be similar, the opinions and consequences would vary among other tenants depending on their socio-demographic profiles. Practical implications This research offers a more comprehensive understanding of the exit barriers tenants’ encounter in PRH. The results gained from this study will assist policymakers in developing a more comprehensive initiative that will assist tenants in exiting PRH. DBKL can effectively engage PRH tenants to provide a strategic departure mechanism for better solutions. Furthermore, DBKL can offer aid in locating cheap housing options for tenants who may have limited access to information on the availability of such homes. Social implications This discovery will also be advantageous for prospective tenants who have been on the waiting list for several years, eagerly awaiting the vacancy of units previously occupied by other tenants. Furthermore, residents who successfully vacate public rental housing (PRH) will need to be considered for incentives to promote the success of the housing pathway. This will lead to the attainment of the equitable allocation that has been identified as the primary concern of PRH. Originality/value This study seeks to clarify the exit barriers encountered by tenants in PRH and identifies the significant factors contributing to the low turnover rate of tenants. The study is relevant for DBKL and policymakers in promoting the success of housing pathways to ensure fairness and efficiency in the principles of public housing.

Modular construction, which involves factory-based modular unit manufacturing followed by installation at a construction site, has been recognized as one of the sustainable construction methods. Its advantages are known to be implemented through (1) standardized design, (2) standardized production method, and (3) large-scale development (mass production system). These three conditions are basic requirements for modular construction market expansion, but it is difficult to define that these conditions are a prerequisite for judging whether modular construction applied or not. Nevertheless, public development companies in regions or countries where modular construction has just begun thought that modular construction should meet all three conditions that are suitable for applying public construction projects. This is because it is difficult to compare conventional construction projects with similar conditions to modular construction projects. This paper analyzes the cost and duration data of three small-scale public construction rental housing (PCRH) projects involving modular construction in Korea. These cases presented herein include a public college student dormitory, public low-rise rental housing, and public mid-rise rental housing in small-scale development projects. Those were applied not standardized design (common design and regulation), but were reflected in each project’s demands (different design and regulation). To compare it, this paper analyzed 91 public housing provision projects’ construction data from 2011 to 2017 from one of the public rental housing provision companies in Korea. Among them, 19 small-scale public rental housing data were extracted for comparing with modular construction project data. The results show that, even if not standardized, the design and production process, and modular construction durations, were more effective—but costs were similar or expensive. Based on the conclusion drawn from three cases, this paper presents important considerations for the application of modular construction in other small-scale public construction rental housing projects from the perspective of public development companies.

Social integration plays a key role in the quality of life of the elderly who move from a rural to an urban area (land-lost elderly), and successful urban integration is known to develop harmony and age-friendly society. Very few studies are concerned with incorporating subjective as well as objective elements into measuring social integration levels of land-lost elderly. In this study, we measured and compared social integration levels between different neighbourhoods of land-lost elderly. We found land-lost elderly in the public housing neighbourhoods, and compared to the commodity housing elderly, they have a higher level of social integration in three aspects: having positive attitudes towards urban life, having high participation rate in activities, and participating activities with neighbours. This is because the elderly living in public housing have neighbours from similar socio-demographic groups and have more social interactions. In addition, the built environments are closely related to social integration levels of the elderly in both neighbourhoods, but effects in the two neighbourhoods present a few differences; the improvement in social environments can greatly facilitate social integration of elderly living in public and commodity housing neighbourhoods, especially for improvement in social contacts with neighbours.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the availability of supplying public rental housing by using low utilized city land and to discuss implications of the results. Currently, Seoul faces a housing problem that lacks public rental housing. In difficult situation of securing expanse vast land through residential development projects as past, we examined whether the utilization of scattered city land in the existing urban area for public housing, could be an alternative to the supply by the construction method. Based on the analytical framework devised by research team, estimated supply capacity that was previously presented by Seoul Metropolitan Government has not yet reached the level that was proposed in the public rental housing supply plan. So, there is a need to search for the utilization of various supply methods out of the construction method. In this regard, it is necessary to review on preparing measures for using the city land against the opposition of the local residents, refurbishing old public rental housing for adding new public housing, increasing supply by purchasing existing private housing, and expansion of the housing benefit to absorb the demand for the public rental housing.

This study attempts to estimate different characteristics of rent benefits generated by the low-income households living in public rental housing in Seoul by income level and supply type, and suggest implications of findings. For this purpose, rent benefits of people who resides in public housing are estimated by the market price approach using Panel Survey of Seoul Housing &amp; Communities Corporation and Korea Housing Survey of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport both released in 2020. According to the findings, rent benefits provided by public rental housing are significant in relation to long-term public Jeonse (SHift), apartment complexes and, geographically, the southeast area where the market rents are relatively high. With regard to income, benefits are noticeable especially in low-income households, which confirms that public rental housing is a very effective tool for redistribution of income. In sum, the findings show that reduction in housing expenses and subsequent increase in disposable income, which can be happened by households moving into public housing, is expected to induce changes in people’s non-rent spendings and bringing in great value and life satisfaction.

There are more and more public rental housing residents in Chongqing with the development of public rental housing construction. However, because of marriage, fertility, change in jobs, educational issues, living with old parents, a few public rental housing tenants have to reconsider the objective public rental housing factors according to the variable personal requirements. Those tenants have to replace their public rental housing with new units of different sizes or of different communities to solve their problems. But it is hard to fulfill their exchange renting needs especially changing public rental housing among communities due to current policy. As the result of the situation, public rental housing resources should make a rearrange and reassignment to better meet the needs of public rental housing tenants and to make a contribution to the sustainable development of public rental housing. The data was collected by random questionnaire survey of three public housing communities of Chongqing and bidirectional market matching theory will be used to build models to analyse the problem. Based on the results of the research, suggestions and countermeasures will be put forward to improve the allocation mechanism of public rental housing.

Young-adult single-person households have emerged as a socially vulnerable group facing housing instability in Korea. To improve insufficient housing policies for this social group, we must evaluate existing policies and provide feedback in a timely manner. In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of housing welfare programs targeting young adults, considering the increase in the supply of public rental housing for them. This study estimated the effect of residing in public rental housing on the intention to achieve homeownership and the mediation effect of residential satisfaction by employing structural equation modeling. The results confirm the following findings. First, when controlling households’ sociodemographic conditions, satisfaction with housing conditions is higher in public rental housing than in private rental housing. Second, high residential satisfaction among young-adult single-person households residing in public rental housing has a significant positive effect on their intention to achieve homeownership through high satisfaction with housing conditions. These findings suggest that public rental housing is an effective housing policy and a stepping stone toward homeownership for young-adult single-person households. This study concludes by emphasizing the necessity for a public rental housing policy considering these policy outcomes.

After the Korean government initiated the provision of the permanent public rental housing in 1989, there has been a variety of policy measures to provide decent housing for low-income households. As of 2009, the ratio of the public rental housing to the total housing became 4.8 percent. It is widely agreed that the nation needs to build more public housing and to target a wider range of the types of households. However, the expansion of such development projects has resulted in worries and oppositions in the impacted neighborhoods, which have insisted that such developments bring about negative impacts on the adjacent neighborhoods. This study explores the impact of recently developed public rental housing (“Kukmin” rental housing) on the nearby housing markets. The paper adopts a quasi-experimental design to deal with the possible endogeneity for the construction of public rental housing by adopting an extended treatment to the canonical difference-in-difference method. This research finds that the public housing projects increase the value of surrounding properties.

This chapter provides an overview of national housing policy evolution in China. The review of housing policy shifts in China demonstrates a transformation from the socialist welfare housing system to a market-oriented housing system, and more recently, to stronger and more direct government intervention in public housing provision. Meanwhile, with the growing complexity in urban housing provision, a new form of public housing provision system has emerged in Chinese cities. There is an evolving focus on different housing schemes and it has begun to shift to public rental housing (PRH), which is now positioned as a major scheme of public housing provision. Given that research on Chinese housing policy has been mainly focused at the national level, this chapter has a specific interest in local-level housing policy condition and implementation. It investigates PRH policy in two Chinese cities to identify forces driving local housing policy. It examines multi-layer public housing provision policies with a specific focus on PRH schemes. The analysis found divergence and diversity of public housing policy in different cities and local jurisdictions in Chongqing and Shenzhen. Local socio-economic and urban development contexts of Chongqing and Shenzhen are consistent with observed inter-city policy variation and divergence.

Rapid and deep changes in society, the economy and policy over the last decades are having an increasing impact on the delivery of social housing in North Western Europe. These changes are transforming the way in which social housing providers perform their task and are reshaping their relationships with the State, communities and with other market actors. The combination of continued State withdrawal from service provision, the deep and persistent effects of the global financial crisis that begun in 2008 and profound changes in the type of demand for social housing across North Western Europe call for a reflection on the implications of these phenomena for social housing providers. Several studies indicate that social housing providers in Europe have begun to adopt new (social) entrepreneurial strategies and are becoming more innovative as a response to these challenges. These strategies imply tackling the tensions between (at times) conflicting drivers, notably those arising from the State, the market and communities. However, research in this topic so far is fragmented, focussing on one country or on specific sub-areas such as asset management and non- housing activities and rarely connects with the relevant wider literature on the third sector and social enterprise. Within this context, this PhD research has sought to widen this discussion by providing new insights through a comparative study of the ways in which individual social housing providers are relating to (i.e. responding to and influencing) these contextual changes. More specifically, the research sought to better understand the complex process of decision-making these companies undergo to manage their responses to competing drivers. Companies operating in two countries (England and The Netherlands) were studied in-depth. In both countries, the social rental sector has played a prominent role in their respective welfare states for decades. While both are amongst countries with the highest share of social rental housing in Europe, each represents a different type of welfare state and of social housing provision - following Kemeny’s classification, a unitary system (the Netherlands) and a dualist system (England). The broad aim of this PhD was to deepen the understanding of the ways in which contextual drivers impact on the mission, values and activities of social housing organisations. Furthermore, the study sought to understand how these organisations are positioning themselves vis-à-vis the State, market and community. The above aims translate into three research questions: (1) How are contextual developments impacting on the missions, values and activities of social housing organisations? (2) How do these organisations position themselves vis-à-vis the State, the market and community? and (3) How are competing values enacted in the decision-making process exercised by these organisations vis-à-vis these contextual drivers? The universe for this PhD research consists of social purpose organisations, not owned by the State, which operate on a non-profit distribution basis. Together they are part of a wide range of ‘third sector’ actors providing social and affordable housing across most of North Western Europe. The PhD adopted a pluralistic epistemological approach with an interpretivist emphasis, with significant use of qualitative research methods. This approach was deemed useful to give a voice to the subject(s) of study. The research design included a mixed methods approach and a longitudinal, international and inter-organisational case study research design, involving two company-cases. The companies were studied over a four-year period, starting in March 2008. The research design and data analysis draws on elements of grounded theory, and on the work of Eisenhardt on ‘building theory from cases’. Following this approach, a series of ‘theoretical propositions’ were devised from the study’s findings in order to answer each of the three research questions. In relation to the first research question, the study found that contextual developments and the missions, values and activities of social housing organisations are in a two-way relationship. From an initial assumption of unidirectional causality, in the process of the research it became clear that the relationship between contextual developments and organisational change is more often than not one of mutual causality. We qualified this relationship through six propositions. First, we posited that market and State drivers have a relatively stronger impact on social housing organisations as compared to community drivers. Second, we postulated that both market and State drivers have a knock-on effect on community drivers. Third, we established that State drivers pose continuous exogenous shocks to social housing providers by means of constant policy changes. Our fourth proposition stated that in a context of economic crisis the relationship between market drivers and social housing organisations is marked by volatility. Our fifth proposition established that all three types of contextual drivers are reinforcing the long-term trend of deepening residualisation of the social housing sector. The sixth proposition emphasizes the long-term mutually shaping relationship between context and social housing organisations. Findings on the second research question led us to describe the positioning of social housing organisations vis-à-vis their environment as a ‘dynamic balancing act’. In order to understand the way(s) in which social housing organisations position themselves in relation to changes in their environment we drew on theories of social enterprise and hybridity to unpack three ideal-typical strategic orientations that may be at play in this process: State, market and community. We adopted a triangular model to illustrate these orientations and developed a classification model to understand the ‘strategic position’ that these organisations adopt vis-à-vis their environment. We looked at three different dimensions of this strategic position, namely mission, values and activities, each captured by a different type of variables in the classification: ‘descriptor’ (to capture the formal characteristics of the organisation), ‘motivator’ (as related to the organisation’s mission), and ‘behaviour’ (referring to the organisation’s activities). Upon applying this classification to our case studies, our findings resulted in three propositions. First, it became clear that while descriptor variables confirmed the hybrid formal characteristics of social housing organisations, they do not account on their own for their position in relation to State, market and community. Our second proposition stated that social housing organisations are constantly balancing pressures to (re)define their mission. Our study found that in this process, each company is faced with trade-offs when considering their organisational mission in relation to a changing mandate from the State domain, while at the same time weighing demands from the market and community domain. Third, we posited that social housing organisations exert different degrees of agency in their positioning vis-à-vis the State, market and community. We identified a continuum of actions that these organisations have put in place to respond to key contextual changes, ranging from ‘reactive’ to ‘proactive’ and ‘strategic’. Hence, social housing organisations would have the capacity to shape their environment and / or at least, their position in relation to this environment. On our third research question, we found that enacting competing values in social housing organisations implies multiple rationalities at play in decision-making. The PhD research used the study of a critical incident in each company to describe the ways in which competing values are enacted in the decision-making process of these organisations in relation to the three types of contextual drivers. In each case, a critical incident was chosen in conjunction with the companies to be studied over a prolonged period of time. Both incidents turned out to be of regulatory nature (i.e. State-driven); in the English case, it was the Comprehensive spending review (CSR) announced in October 2010 and a series of major welfare reforms implemented by the coalition government. In the Netherlands, the Dutch government ruling on the issue of State aid by housing associations implemented in January 2011. The companies’ responses to these critical incidents, respectively, were operationalised through a ‘strategic decision’ made by each of them vis-à-vis these events, defined as a decision recognised as having significant implications for the structure, direction or purpose of an organisation. The English company defined their strategic decision as the impact on the company’s vision, direction, strategy and financial capacity of the October CSR and the shake-up in the welfare benefit system. More specifically, the company’s bid to the HCA for the four-year development programme in the first half of 2011 formed the basis for the study of this critical incident. The strategic decision of the Dutch company was whether to follow the Dutch government’s ruling on income ceilings or not. Furthermore, the company had to decide how to re-organize its financing in order to comply with the required administrative split between activities classified as ‘Services of General Economic Interest’ (SGEI) and ‘non SGEI’. The study of these critical incidents looked at the decision-making process from both a formal and content perspective, distinguishing motivator and behaviour variables in the process. In terms of form, we found that different modes of decision-making co-exist in the process. Participants in each company use a variety of ‘political tactics’ to influence the decision-making process. Taken all together, the existence of these tactics confirms the presence of institutional entrepreneurial behaviour amongst company executives taking part in the process. Realizing that these tactics exist is important because it shows the ways in which different participants and their (departmental) agendas try to influence the outcome of the decision. In terms of content, a first proposition established that social housing organisations operate with multiple rationalities; non-rational factors such as politics, intuition and past experience played a key role alongside technical considerations. In our fourth proposition we identified a number of ‘dilemmas of hybridity’ that these organisations have to deal with to stay true to their mission while tackling pressures from different State, market and community. Second, we discussed the ambivalent relationship that social housing providers have with risk. A number of questions were raised on what (if any) risk attitude lies closer to third sector service providers in relation to what is expected from commercial enterprises or even from the State. This is relevant in particular given the more general trend to transfer risk from the State to third sector organisations in service provision overall in European societies. Last, our research found that social housing organisations are consistent with stated core values but are constantly making choices on how to enact these values. While contextual drivers may appear not to affect the mission and values of these social housing organisations, the former do impact on the companies’ strategies and activities. This means that there can be significant gaps between espoused and enacted values. Policy and practice implications emerging from the findings to all three research questions included: First, we raised the question as to whether the aggregate impact of the regulatory changes at sector level in each country - such as the ones portrayed by the respective critical incidents - would be the convergence of both countries’ housing association sectors in terms of their role and scope. Second, the study coincides with views in both countries pointing to the lack of a ‘single voice’ or unified strategic action fields. In addition, in both cases, although to different extents, the perceived ‘policy confusion’ – namely, the view that government was sending conflicting signals to social housing organisations - raised tensions between the redefined mandate and the organisational missions of the individual companies. Third, findings suggest a trend towards increasing differentiation within the housing association sector in each country as a result of growing tensions between mandate (social housing as a public service obligation as defined by the State) and mission (social housing as ‘core business’ as define by each organisation). Fourth, the question emerges as to whether the identity of a social housing provider operating along the wide spectrum between the two ‘pure’ types is defined by its activities (behaviour variables) or by their organisational form/legal status (descriptor variables). The concept of hybridity proved useful to gauge this complexity, as illustrated in the ‘dilemmas’ companies have to face when making strategic decisions. Fifth, findings showed that community drivers tend to stay constant or change slightly over the long term, except for those resulting from the combined impacts of the economic crisis and the resulting political and regulatory changes. This leads to the recommendation for social housing enterprises to consider longer-term political (and market) trends as well, to anticipate on going (neoliberal) trends and possibly fundamental changes in housing preferences. Sixth, while values tend to stay constant, mission is permanently redefined in relation to pressures from the environment (including changes in mandate) and activities change accordingly. In order to stay true to this identity, social housing providers ought to be able to anticipate conflicting logics and put mechanisms in place to adjust their policies and activities to respond to these challenges while keeping its core values intact. This PhD has contributed to science both from a theoretical and methodological perspective. Through a series of theoretical propositions, we have added to a developing body of knowledge, specifically on the nature of the relationship between contextual drivers and organisational changes in social housing organisations. Our classification of social enterprise in housing allows comparisons between organisations operating in diverse contexts, which share a similar core task. This can be useful for scientific, political and practical purposes. From a scientific perspective, it can be used as a basis for identifying similarities and differences between social housing organisations within and between countries at a much deeper level than traditional comparisons on the basis of tenure or other formal organisational characteristics. Policy makers can also use this information to understand the factors leading to different types of behaviours by social housing providers. For professionals, this model may be useful to assess to what extent their organisation is being consistent with regards to espoused vs. enacted values. From a societal perspective, findings of this PhD can help us reflect on the future role of social housing in the context of changing social contracts and social cohesion and welfare models in each country. Furthermore, the research helped participating practitioners to reflect about a number of organisational dilemmas they face, as illustrated in our findings.

Rapid and deep changes in society, the economy and policy over the last decades are having an increasing impact on the delivery of social housing in North Western Europe. These changes are transforming the way in which social housing providers perform their task and are reshaping their relationships with the State, communities and with other market actors. The combination of continued State withdrawal from service provision, the deep and persistent effects of the global financial crisis that begun in 2008 and profound changes in the type of demand for social housing across North Western Europe call for a reflection on the implications of these phenomena for social housing providers. Several studies indicate that social housing providers in Europe have begun to adopt new (social) entrepreneurial strategies and are becoming more innovative as a response to these challenges. These strategies imply tackling the tensions between (at times) conflicting drivers, notably those arising from the State, the market and communities. However, research in this topic so far is fragmented, focussing on one country or on specific sub-areas such as asset management and non- housing activities and rarely connects with the relevant wider literature on the third sector and social enterprise. Within this context, this PhD research has sought to widen this discussion by providing new insights through a comparative study of the ways in which individual social housing providers are relating to (i.e. responding to and influencing) these contextual changes. More specifically, the research sought to better understand the complex process of decision-making these companies undergo to manage their responses to competing drivers. Companies operating in two countries (England and The Netherlands) were studied in-depth. In both countries, the social rental sector has played a prominent role in their respective welfare states for decades. While both are amongst countries with the highest share of social rental housing in Europe, each represents a different type of welfare state and of social housing provision - following Kemeny’s classification, a unitary system (the Netherlands) and a dualist system (England). The broad aim of this PhD was to deepen the understanding of the ways in which contextual drivers impact on the mission, values and activities of social housing organisations. Furthermore, the study sought to understand how these organisations are positioning themselves vis-à-vis the State, market and community. The above aims translate into three research questions: (1) How are contextual developments impacting on the missions, values and activities of social housing organisations? (2) How do these organisations position themselves vis-à-vis the State, the market and community? and (3) How are competing values enacted in the decision-making process exercised by these organisations vis-à-vis these contextual drivers? The universe for this PhD research consists of social purpose organisations, not owned by the State, which operate on a non-profit distribution basis. Together they are part of a wide range of ‘third sector’ actors providing social and affordable housing across most of North Western Europe. The PhD adopted a pluralistic epistemological approach with an interpretivist emphasis, with significant use of qualitative research methods. This approach was deemed useful to give a voice to the subject(s) of study. The research design included a mixed methods approach and a longitudinal, international and inter-organisational case study research design, involving two company-cases. The companies were studied over a four-year period, starting in March 2008. The research design and data analysis draws on elements of grounded theory, and on the work of Eisenhardt on ‘building theory from cases’. Following this approach, a series of ‘theoretical propositions’ were devised from the study’s findings in order to answer each of the three research questions. In relation to the first research question, the study found that contextual developments and the missions, values and activities of social housing organisations are in a two-way relationship. From an initial assumption of unidirectional causality, in the process of the research it became clear that the relationship between contextual developments and organisational change is more often than not one of mutual causality. We qualified this relationship through six propositions. First, we posited that market and State drivers have a relatively stronger impact on social housing organisations as compared to community drivers. Second, we postulated that both market and State drivers have a knock-on effect on community drivers. Third, we established that State drivers pose continuous exogenous shocks to social housing providers by means of constant policy changes. Our fourth proposition stated that in a context of economic crisis the relationship between market drivers and social housing organisations is marked by volatility. Our fifth proposition established that all three types of contextual drivers are reinforcing the long-term trend of deepening residualisation of the social housing sector. The sixth proposition emphasizes the long-term mutually shaping relationship between context and social housing organisations. Findings on the second research question led us to describe the positioning of social housing organisations vis-à-vis their environment as a ‘dynamic balancing act’. In order to understand the way(s) in which social housing organisations position themselves in relation to changes in their environment we drew on theories of social enterprise and hybridity to unpack three ideal-typical strategic orientations that may be at play in this process: State, market and community. We adopted a triangular model to illustrate these orientations and developed a classification model to understand the ‘strategic position’ that these organisations adopt vis-à-vis their environment. We looked at three different dimensions of this strategic position, namely mission, values and activities, each captured by a different type of variables in the classification: ‘descriptor’ (to capture the formal characteristics of the organisation), ‘motivator’ (as related to the organisation’s mission), and ‘behaviour’ (referring to the organisation’s activities). Upon applying this classification to our case studies, our findings resulted in three propositions. First, it became clear that while descriptor variables confirmed the hybrid formal characteristics of social housing organisations, they do not account on their own for their position in relation to State, market and community. Our second proposition stated that social housing organisations are constantly balancing pressures to (re)define their mission. Our study found that in this process, each company is faced with trade-offs when considering their organisational mission in relation to a changing mandate from the State domain, while at the same time weighing demands from the market and community domain. Third, we posited that social housing organisations exert different degrees of agency in their positioning vis-à-vis the State, market and community. We identified a continuum of actions that these organisations have put in place to respond to key contextual changes, ranging from ‘reactive’ to ‘proactive’ and ‘strategic’. Hence, social housing organisations would have the capacity to shape their environment and / or at least, their position in relation to this environment. On our third research question, we found that enacting competing values in social housing organisations implies multiple rationalities at play in decision-making. The PhD research used the study of a critical incident in each company to describe the ways in which competing values are enacted in the decision-making process of these organisations in relation to the three types of contextual drivers. In each case, a critical incident was chosen in conjunction with the companies to be studied over a prolonged period of time. Both incidents turned out to be of regulatory nature (i.e. State-driven); in the English case, it was the Comprehensive spending review (CSR) announced in October 2010 and a series of major welfare reforms implemented by the coalition government. In the Netherlands, the Dutch government ruling on the issue of State aid by housing associations implemented in January 2011. The companies’ responses to these critical incidents, respectively, were operationalised through a ‘strategic decision’ made by each of them vis-à-vis these events, defined as a decision recognised as having significant implications for the structure, direction or purpose of an organisation. The English company defined their strategic decision as the impact on the company’s vision, direction, strategy and financial capacity of the October CSR and the shake-up in the welfare benefit system. More specifically, the company’s bid to the HCA for the four-year development programme in the first half of 2011 formed the basis for the study of this critical incident. The strategic decision of the Dutch company was whether to follow the Dutch government’s ruling on income ceilings or not. Furthermore, the company had to decide how to re-organize its financing in order to comply with the required administrative split between activities classified as ‘Services of General Economic Interest’ (SGEI) and ‘non SGEI’. The study of these critical incidents looked at the decision-making process from both a formal and content perspective, distinguishing motivator and behaviour variables in the process. In terms of form, we found that different modes of decision-making co-exist in the process. Participants in each company use a variety of ‘political tactics’ to influence the decision-making process. Taken