Political economy perspectives and their relevance for contemporary housing studies

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of political economy scholarship stressing the class antagonisms that undergird housing systems. Despite differences, these contributions focus on housing as a component of a nation’s economy and the role of political institutions as managers of that system. Our goal is to help assess the value of emerging discussions that focus on the centrality of housing assets to ideas of class and the structuring of social opportunity. We identify four key elements of such approaches: first, a concern with changes within capitalism since the GFC; second, an interest in the continued role of the State; third, the ideological position of housing and tenure; and, finally, a concern with the class-tenure antagonisms that feature in many urban settings. We argue that while an emerging body of work now examines the role of housing assets in shaping class-based fissures there remains a need to consider the policy histories affecting the shifting position of particular tenures.

Keywords:

• Political economy of housing
• capital
• homeownership
• housing tenure
• housing classes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We deploy the words ‘long term’ to acknowledge that historical events and processes shape contemporary capitalism. So, for example, accentuated speculative housing activities can be sourced in part to geopolitical events that took in the 1970s. The legacy of wage inflation and government debt that occurred during the mid 1970s informed subsequent policymaking at least until the COVID-19 pandemic.

2 The claims that Adkins et al. (2020) make in relation to how contemporary housing assets reinforce class advantage and exclusion are not new but build on earlier research: for example Schwartz & Seabrooke (2009), Aalbers & Christophers (2014), and Chwieroth & Walter (2019).