Policy Press
Eight Housing and community
Abstract
Housing is a distinctive kind of field. In other fields, such as health or education, goods and services are broadly viewed as being provided in three different ways: through the market, through the state and through voluntary effort. These three ways are equated with three different sectors: the private sector, the public sector and the voluntary and community sector, respectively. The main cleavages in welfare provision are therefore regarded as sectoral. With housing, however, tenure – understood as a distinct bundle of property rights and obligations – presents a complicating factor because it gives rise to a different kind of cleavage, between those who own housing (as owner-occupiers or landlords) and those who rent it. Some commentators, such as Saunders (1990), argue that tenure cleavages are more important than sectoral cleavages, and it is at least plausible that those who rent their homes (whether from a private, public or voluntary sector landlord) have more in common with one another as tenants than they have with their landlords. However, the relationship between housing tenure and community is complex, varies from one country to another, and is still not very well understood. For example, although in many countries, the most precarious households are likely to be found in the private rented sector, it is not generally the case that homeowners are less ‘community-minded’ than public sector tenants. In the US: ‘The most prominent form of community organizing in the 1950s was the neighborhood homeowners’ associations that proliferated in outer cities and new suburbs’, which ‘all shared a twofold goal of protecting property values and building and maintaining community’ (DeFilippis et al, 2010, 61).
Abstract
Housing is a distinctive kind of field. In other fields, such as health or education, goods and services are broadly viewed as being provided in three different ways: through the market, through the state and through voluntary effort. These three ways are equated with three different sectors: the private sector, the public sector and the voluntary and community sector, respectively. The main cleavages in welfare provision are therefore regarded as sectoral. With housing, however, tenure – understood as a distinct bundle of property rights and obligations – presents a complicating factor because it gives rise to a different kind of cleavage, between those who own housing (as owner-occupiers or landlords) and those who rent it. Some commentators, such as Saunders (1990), argue that tenure cleavages are more important than sectoral cleavages, and it is at least plausible that those who rent their homes (whether from a private, public or voluntary sector landlord) have more in common with one another as tenants than they have with their landlords. However, the relationship between housing tenure and community is complex, varies from one country to another, and is still not very well understood. For example, although in many countries, the most precarious households are likely to be found in the private rented sector, it is not generally the case that homeowners are less ‘community-minded’ than public sector tenants. In the US: ‘The most prominent form of community organizing in the 1950s was the neighborhood homeowners’ associations that proliferated in outer cities and new suburbs’, which ‘all shared a twofold goal of protecting property values and building and maintaining community’ (DeFilippis et al, 2010, 61).
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Detailed contents vi
- List of boxes ix
- List of acronyms x
- About the author xi
-
Part I
- The nature of community 3
- Capital, class and community 23
- Political community under capitalism 67
- Governmental approaches to community 91
-
Part II
- Community economic development (CED) 123
- Community learning 147
- Community health and social care 171
- Housing and community 197
- Community policing 231
- Conclusion 261
- Reference 265
- Index 337
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Detailed contents vi
- List of boxes ix
- List of acronyms x
- About the author xi
-
Part I
- The nature of community 3
- Capital, class and community 23
- Political community under capitalism 67
- Governmental approaches to community 91
-
Part II
- Community economic development (CED) 123
- Community learning 147
- Community health and social care 171
- Housing and community 197
- Community policing 231
- Conclusion 261
- Reference 265
- Index 337
