Nation Of Homeowners Research Articles

Social Citizenship, Inequality and Homeownership. Postwar Perspectives from the North of Europe

In this article, we analyse the social distribution of residential property in Norway post-1945 in light of the concept of social citizenship. Drawing on data from censuses and tax registers, we examine the social stratification of owner-occupation and housing wealth in a Nordic nation of homeowners. Our study shows that residential property and housing wealth is very unevenly distributed, and that the share of low-income homeowners decreased markedly after 1990. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to three different conceptions of citizenship: the socio-liberal, the republican and the libertarian. Our main argument is that the falling rate of low-income owner-occupation constitutes an erosion of social citizenship viewed from the socio-liberal and republican conception of citizenship. This follows from theoretical arguments and empirical studies linking homeownership to positive welfare outcomes, such as civic engagement and social integration. The latter is arguably particularly true in some high-homeownership countries, such as Norway, where owner-occupation is the cultural norm and rental housing is associated with low quality and insecurity.

The Meaning of Home and Its Implications on Alternative Tenures: A Malaysian Perspective

The discourse on the meaning of home is largely centred on the Western experiences and perspectives, producing insights into the economic and psycho-social aspects of home, with less attention on the Eastern context. This paper explores the emotive meaning of home from the perspective of Malaysia, a nation of homeowners. Gurney’s view of home as an emotional “warehouse” framed this inquiry, supporting the notion of feelings associated with the dwelling being created, deposited and drawn by its occupants. This paper represents part of a larger housing study into an alternative housing tenure for Malaysia that argues that the sense of home can be independent of housing tenure. This paper reports the meaning of home as derived from 10 diarists who have been actively involved in creating the “home” and were therefore capable to describe the process of emotional appropriation of their lived space. Findings suggested that the process of assigning meaning to home was dependent on diarists’ feelings, perceptions, attachments and relations regarding their lived space. Diarists mainly associated their emotive construction of home with family-centred activities and space, which took place in both the micro-sense (within the dwelling) and the macro-sense (the neighbourhood).

The meaning of home in Romania: views from urban owner–occupiers

The post-communist privatisation of state flats to sitting tenants has transformed Romania into a nation of homeowners; yet its popularity appears perplexing given the poor quality of the stock and disappointing, given flat-owners’ subsequent lack of action regarding home improvement. Conversely, self-builders’ proactive agency moved them up the housing ladder. While this striking contrast draws attention to various structural conditions, which have constrained the former and enabled the latter, it also raises intriguing questions on residents’ meanings of home. By interrogating 48 homeowners’ narratives, this paper sustains the multilayered and multi-scalar meanings of home, which intertwine the socio-cultural territory of family and nation; the physical frame of one room or several dwellings; the emotional domain of object-memories; and the ontological realm epitomised by something as minimal as ‘my bed’. Findings demonstrate that flat-owners and self-builders do not significantly differ in their meanings of home but detached houses rather than flats facilitate more fully their appropriation.

A Nation of Home Owners. By Peter Saunders. Unwin Hyman, 1990. 418 pp. Cloth, $55.00; paper, $24.95

A Nation of Home Owners. By Peter Saunders. Unwin Hyman, 1990. 418 pp. Cloth, $55.00; paper, $24.95

A Nation of Home Owners.

A Nation of Home Owners.

Review: A Nation of Home Owners, the Medieval Imagination, the Debate on Classes, the Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project, Venice and the Renaissance, Free to Lose: An Introduction to Marxist Economic Philosophy, Environmental Problems: Nature, Economy and State, Reflections on Richard Hartshorne's The Nature of Geography, Third World Regional Development: A Reappraisal, Race and Local Politics

Review: A Nation of Home Owners, the Medieval Imagination, the Debate on Classes, the Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project, Venice and the Renaissance, Free to Lose: An Introduction to Marxist Economic Philosophy, Environmental Problems: Nature, Economy and State, Reflections on Richard Hartshorne's <i>The Nature of Geography</i>, Third World Regional Development: A Reappraisal, Race and Local Politics

A Nation of Home Owners.

A Nation of Home Owners.

REVIEW ARTICLES

Eckstein, S. 1988: The poverty of revolution: the state and the urban poor in Mexico.Gilbert, A. and A. Varley 1991: Landlord and tenant: housing the poor in urban Mexico.Selby, H.A., A.D. Murphy and A. Lorenzen with I. Cabrera, A. Castañeda and L.I. Ruiz 1990: The Mexican urban household: organizing for self‐defense.Clapham, D., P. Kemp and S.J. Smith 1990: Housing and social policy.Forrest, R., A. Murie and P. Williams 1990: Home ownership — differentiation and fragmentation.Malpass, P. and A. Murie 1990: Housing policy and practice.Morris, J. and M. Winn 1990: Housing and social inequality.Saunders, P. 1990: A nation of home owners.

A Nation of Home Owners

A Nation of Home Owners

Book reviews : Saunders, P. 1990 : A nation of home owners. London: Unwin Hyman. xii + 420 pp. £35.00 cloth, £12.95 paper

Book reviews : Saunders, P. 1990 : A nation of home owners. London: Unwin Hyman. xii + 420 pp. £35.00 cloth, £12.95 paper

Book reviews

Reshaping Housing Policy: Subsidies, Rents and Residualisation. Peter Malpass. London: Routledge, 1989. pp196. £9.95 (paperback). A Nation of Home Owners. Peter Saunders. London: Unwin and Hyman, 1990. pp418. £12.95 (paperback). £35.00 (hardback). Ethnic Minority Housing: Explanations and Policies. Philip Sarre, Deborah Phillips and Richard Skellington. Aldershot: Avebury, 1989. xxiii, pp384. £35.00 (hardback). Research in Ethnic Relations Series. Housing Policy in Developing Countries. Gil Shidlo (ed). London and New York: Routledge, 1990. Rebuilding a Low‐Income Housing Policy. Rachel Bratt. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989. pp399. Housing and Social Policy. D. Clapham, P. Kemp and S. J. Smith. London: Macmillan, 1990. pp274. £35.00 (hardback). £9.95 (paperback). Privatism and Urban Policy in Britain and the United States. Timothy Bamekov, Robin Boyle and Daniel Rich. Oxford University Press, 1989. pp267. £35.00 (cloth). Housing Policy: An Introduction. Paul N. Balchin. London, Routledge. 1989 second edition. 312pp. £30.00 cloth.