Ilse Helbrecht

Security and Insecurity of Home Ownership: Germany and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT This paper examines the experience of households in two adjacent countries, Germany and the Netherlands, both of which have relatively modest levels of home ownership but significantly different housing systems. Population growth is slowing down in Germany, while it is still increasing in the Netherlands. German house prices are stable while Dutch prices have been rising considerably for 25 years now. The central question is whether people in these two different contexts, which are both faced with globalization and social security reforms, have similar perceptions of the securities and insecurities of home ownership. The paper is based on institutional studies and 20 interviews among home owners and ten interviews among tenants in both countries. The central issues here are the perceptions of (in)security and equity. The paper concludes that in both countries home ownership is perceived as a nest-egg and a ‘pension in stone’. However, it is also associated with insecurity. In Germany many households saw house prices as a source of insecurity. This can be explained by strong fluctuations in house prices in Germany and the fear that the declining population might adversely affect the situation and hence the ‘pension in stone’. In the Netherlands a policy change—particularly a change in tax relief for mortgage-holders—was the main worry.

Everyday urban encounters as stratification practices

Geographies of urban encounter explore how people live with difference in contemporary, super-diverse cities. For a deeper understanding of the role of encounters for living with cultural and social differences, we conceptualise encounters as manifestations of Foucauldian micro-mechanisms of power conducted by affects. Affects, understood as complex, reflexive states of being, are direct responses to social or environmental stimuli. Our main point is that affects have a great impact on situational struggles for interactional dominance as expressions of power. On the empirical basis of video-recorded chance interactions in Berlin and focus groups we analyse the influence affects display in mutual negotiations of power as situational stratifications between interlocutors. As our main result we conclude that spaces of mundane transgression emerge out of the impact of affects, which can be observed in moments of situational stratification on account of the influence that affects can have on passers-by.

Demographic Change and Retirement Planning: Comparing Households’ Views on the Role of Housing Equity in Germany and the UK

Abstract As states across Europe come under pressure to meet the needs of ageing populations, there has been increasing interest in the potential role of housing equity in funding welfare provision. This paper draws on the findings of a European study, Demographic Change and Housing Wealth (DEMHOW), which set out to explore whether housing plays a role in retirement planning. This paper compares the views of homeowners in Germany and the UK. The former is a country where homeownership is the minority tenure and the preserve of affluent households, and where house prices have been stagnant for years. The latter is a country of homeownership where half the poor are home owners, and where real house price increases over many decades have served to establish the belief that homeownership is one of the best investments accessible to ordinary people. In addition, ‘equity release’ is more common, and related products better developed, in the UK than in Germany. Given these differences, it might be assumed UK homeowners would be more willing to consider utilising housing equity to supplement their income in retirement than their German counterparts. This paper sets out to explore whether this is the case.

Demographischer Wandel, Generationeneffekte und Wohnungsmarktentwicklung: Wohneigentum als Altersvorsorge?

ZusammenfassungIn diesem Beitrag werden Wohnungsmarktentwicklungen in Deutschland unter den Bedingungen des demographischen Wandels untersucht. Hierbei steht insbesondere die Zukunft des Wohneigentums im Blickpunkt. Während traditionell in Deutschland selbst genutztes Wohneigentum als Konsumgut betrachtet wird, ist angesichts schrumpfender Bevölkerungszahlen und der gestiegenen Sorge um das Rentensystem ein Wandel in den Einstellungen privater Haushalte zu beobachten. Basierend auf 36 qualitativen Interviews mit Wohneigentümern aus drei Altersgruppen wird die gestiegene Bedeutung des Wohneigentums als Investitionsgut zur Altersvorsorge untersucht. Auf Grundlage dieser Interviews wird die These entwickelt, dass sich das Verhalten anhand verschiedener „Wohn-Generationen“ unterscheidet: Je jünger die Haushalte sind, desto eher findet das eigene Wohneigentum Beachtung als Investitionsgut. Die Kehrseite ist, dass bei dieser Entwicklung eine deutliche Abnahme der Erbschaften – oftmals für junge Haushalte die einzige Möglichkeit zum Eigentumserwerb – prognostizierbar ist.AbstractThis article examines recent shifts among German homeowners towards the use of their housing equity under the circumstance of demographic change. Whilst traditionally housing equity was considered a consumer good, recent developments in pension provision and demographics strengthen its position as a pension asset. Consequently, more and more young German households consider their dwelling to be a centrepiece of their financial provisions in preparation for future risks and for retirement. This is clearly a new perspective in a predominantly tenant society. Based on 36 in-depth interviews with members of households, the authors assert that homeowning behaviour and attitudes have evolved differently for different generations and point out distinguishable “housing generations”. The younger a household the more often housing equity features as an investment good, with the downside that with this development continuing inheritances may decline, often the only way young German households can afford buying a house.

Situational places: rethinking geographies of intercultural interaction in super‐diverse urban space

Abstract Cities in general and public urban spaces in particular have re‐emerged as important places where strangers from different social and cultural backgrounds interact. The growing number of intercultural encounters assumed by contemporary urban studies calls for a theoretical examination of how these encounters are conducted. In this article we therefore critically examine the interplay between cultures, strangers, performances, encounters, and urban built environments. This means bringing together the theoretical ideas of super‐diversity, culture in world society, and situational places. The article argues that intercultural interactions between strangers in cities – and elsewhere – shape the cultural conditions of contemporary world society. First, super‐diversity is discussed as a cultural reality of world society. Drawing on empirical evidence from psychology, intercultural interactions between strangers are then demonstrated to be part of ritualized cultural negotiations. Finally, the notion of situational places is put forward as the conceptual nexus between these cultural encounters and the urban environment. This perspective allows the integration of bodily performances between strangers, spatial and situational context, and the resulting places of encounter.

Die Politisierung der Stadtplanung: die performative Rolle von Planungsinstrumenten in Konfliktzonen am Beispiel Jerusalem

ZusammenfassungDie politische Instrumentalisierung der Stadtplanung ist ein in der gegenwärtigen Planungswissenschaft nur wenig beachtetes Feld. Die Vorstellung einer Stadtplanung als unvoreingenommenes und rationales Instrument der Verwaltung zum räumlichen Ausgleich und zur Verbesserung von Lebensbedingungen wird in jüngster Zeit zunehmend durch kritische Positionen in Bezug auf die gesellschaftliche Rolle der Stadtplanung, ihre Kontextgebundenheit, ihre Legitimation, ihren Auftrag und damit auch ihren Bezügen zu privaten Interessen und politischer ebenso wie ökonomischer Macht ergänzt. Jerusalem als Hauptstadt Israels kann als ein prototypisches Beispiel für die politische Instrumentalisierung der Stadtplanung dienen. Der Beitrag nimmt eine skalare Betrachtung der politischen Folgen stadtplanerischen Handelns in Jerusalem vor und analysiert die wechselseitigen Relationen zwischen lokalen, nationalen und geostrategischen Interessen und Interventionen, die in den Praxen der relevanten Akteure ihren Ausdruck finden. Der Aufsatz kommt auf der Grundlage postkolonialer Geographien und performanztheoretischer Ansätze zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Jerusalemer Stadtplanung als politisches Instrument einen bedeutenden Anteil an der zu beobachtenden performativen Implementierung geographischer Imaginationen von Jerusalem als vereinigte Hauptstadt des Staates Israel und Symbol der jüdischen Nation aufweist. Damit fungiert die Jerusalemer Stadtplanung als ein aktiver Agent der Durchsetzung hegemonialer politischer Interessen, die weit über den lokalräumlichen Kontext (Ost)Jerusalems hinausgehen.AbstractThe utilization of urban planning practices for political purposes has become an issue of planning theory in the last decades. Until the 1970s town planning was considered to be a neutral and rational instrument for the purpose of spatial regulation and administration as well as the general improvement of living conditions. Only recently with the rise of communicative planning theory this perspective has been complemented by critical perceptions of the political and ideological role of planning practices within society, their context-dependence, legitimization, normative purposes and also its interlinkages to individual aims as well as political and economic power. Jerusalem, the (partly occupied) capital of Israel, is a prototypic example of the utilization of urban planning for (even geo) political ends. This article is based on qualitative fieldwork and aims to scrutinize the scalar political consequences of various urban planning practices in Jerusalem. We undertake an analysis of the reciprocal relations of local, national, and geostrategic interests as well as the resulting actions by the relevant stakeholders. Theoretically informed by postcolonial geographies and performative approaches the paper concludes, that urban planning in Jerusalem is a highly political instrument that is strongly involved in the performative implementations of particular geographic imaginations of Jerusalem as a united capital of the state of Israel and historic as well as religious symbol of the Jewish nation. Hence urban planning in Jerusalem is an active element in the enforcement of hegemonic political interests which reach beyond the local context of Eastern Jerusalem.

The housing careers of younger adults and intergenerational support in Germany’s ‘society of renters’

Abstract Through narrative interviews with younger adults and their parents, this paper explores how the housing transitions of younger adults, both within the rental sector and into homeownership, are shaped through intergenerational intra-family support in Germany’s society of renters. Our findings highlight the profound qualitative differences between regular transfers for establishing and retaining residential independence in the rental sector and inter vivos gifts for house purchase. Where the former support type is given and taken unconditionally, transfers for house purchase follow a different logic and carry different meanings. Being a necessary condition for property acquisition at young age, they have the power to completely rebalance family relations and undermine younger adults’ autonomy accordingly. In an aggregate perspective, our study further suggests increasing socio-spatial inequalities within the younger generation which run along both class and spatial origin, sharply dividing the housing market opportunities of ‘original Berliners’ and those who have moved to the city from more affluent regions in Germany.

Die Welt als Horizont – Zur Produktion globaler Expertise in der Weltgesellschaft

Die ganze Welt ist heute Horizont individuellen und organisationalen Handelns. Dies war nicht immer so. Denn jede Gesellschaft und jedwede gesellschaftliche Formation schafft sich ihre je eigenen Muster von Raum und Zeit. Und eine jede konstruiert sich den Horizont als Grenze der eigenen Betrachtung und damit auch ihre eigene historische Geographie (Harvey 1990: 418). Wurden im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert vor allem die Raum-Zeit-Muster nationaler Gesellschaften von den Sozialwissenschaften bearbeitet, so ist die gegenwartige Formation zutreffend nur mehr als Weltgesellschaft zu beschreiben. Der Grad der Vernetzung und kommunikativen Erreichbarkeit nahezu aller Orte auf dem Globus fureinander ist so hoch geworden, dass die Welt zum gesellschaftlichen Horizont des Handelns, des Denkens, der Erfahrung, der Imagination und der Bewertung geworden ist (Stichweh 2000). Dies trifft auf Medienbilder ebenso zu wie auf Konsumstile, politische Diskurse, okonomische Investitionen, den Warenhandel oder Kunstauktionen.

Seeing through African protest logics: a longitudinal review of continuity and change in protests in Ghana

ABSTRACT Protests in Africa have a long history. Yet, for many years, western misconceptions in protest studies have hindered our understanding of the particularities and commonalities of African protests. In this study, we scrutinize the historical continuity and discontinuity of protests in Africa, using Ghana as a case. We situate a longitudinal analysis of protests in Ghana within the theoretical model of protest logics, using the institutional-analytical method. The study finds historical continuity largely in terms of proletarian (high cost of living, dispossession and inadequate infrastructure), republican (participatory governance and corruption) and corporatist (working conditions and unemployment) mobilisation themes in Ghana. These themes are underpinned by the processes of class struggle, accumulation by (urban) dispossession, neoliberalism, splintered urbanism, gentrification and corruption. The implication of this study is that contemporary protests in Africa would be influenced by issues such as high cost of living, participatory governance, erratic power supply, unemployment, poor road infrastructure and corruption. These issues should be prioritized in the agenda of African governments in order to avert spontaneous protests.

Die Münchner Olympischen Spiele von 1972 als Instrument der Stadtentwicklungspolitik

Die Munchner Olympischen Spiele gelten als eines der ersten Beispiele fur eine Festivalisierung der Stadtpolitik. Verglichen mit den anderen Beitragen in diesem Band, die allesamt Aussagen zu einem neuartigen Phanomen der Politik in den Stadten treffen, unterliegt das Munchner Fallbeispiel einer Besonderheit: 21 Jahre sind seit den Spielen vergangen, 30 Jahre mus man zuruckgehen, wenn man die Ausgangssituation einbeziehen will. Der Zeithorizont der Beobachtung bietet die besondere Chance, das grose Ereignis vollstandig uberblicken und bewerten zu konnen. Es handelt sich um eine abgeschlossene Periode, die auch planungspolitisch relativ eindeutig als die euphorische Phase des Aufbruchs in die Stadtentwicklungsplanung eingeordnet werden kann. Damit bietet sich eine klare Interpretationsfolie fur die Einordnung des individuellen Grosereignisses in den stadt-entwicklungspolitischen Kontext der 60er und fruhen 70er Jahre.