Judith Allen

Welfare Regimes, Welfare Systems and Housing in Southern Europe

Abstract Are housing provision systems in southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece) different from those in northern Europe? Answering this question requires a way of theorizing housing systems, which locates them within their broader societal contexts. After setting out some of the key empirical differences between northern and southern, the paper reanalyses Esping-Andersens work on welfare regimes and reviews housing-specific work using these ideas as a basis for identifying differences between northern and southern European welfare and housing systems. Three key factors emerge from this analysis: the capacity of civil administration, the linkages between formal and informal segments in the labour market, and the operation of extended familial networks in welfare distribution. On this basis, the paper presents a more institutionally robust analysis of the relationships between welfare and housing provision systems in southern Europe. The conclusions address the problems of using welfare regime theory to analyse housing provision as well as some of the specific housing problems associated with socio-economic change in southern Europe.

Multiculturalism and Governing Neighbourhoods

Parekhs theory of multiculturalism offers a number of insights which are useful in analysing the role of neighbourhood governance in promoting social cohesion within culturally diverse small areas. The problems of neighbourhood governance are rooted in disjointed structural change across Europe over the past 25 years. In this context, the formation of a multicultural European polity risks creating a white European ethnicity which will institutionalise specific forms of racism within distressed neighbourhoods. At the same time, the shift from government to governance as a way to address the problems of governability in structurally reconstituted societies is associated with the top-down imposition of specific forms of neighbourhood governance which can then, unwittingly, become part of the institutionalisation of racism. Using Parekhs theory to construct a critique yields a set of principles which illuminate a number of key strategic elements which can be used practically in designing neighbourhood governance mechanisms and which illuminate the pre-occupations in the existing literature.

Book Review: Metropolitan Plan Making: An Analysis of Experience with the Preparation and Evaluation of Alternative Land-Use and Transportation Plans: by DAVID E. BOYCE, NORMAN D. DAY and CHRIS McDoNALD. Philadelphia: Regional Science Research Institute. Monograph Series N. 4. 1970. pp. 475.

resources of time and money perhaps limited the possibility of tracing these effects but the absence of information on this inevitably implies a partial evaluation process . These reservations do not detract from the excellence of the study. They only suggest ways in which an outstanding piece of work might have been made even better . Space does not permit a critique in depth of many of the excellent parts of the study such as the innovative landscape analysis, townscape analysis, wildlife analysis, and housing environment analysis. The demographic forecasts, employment forecasts and the transportation studies while not innovative are well done . In sum, this is a prime example of what may be termed the sequentially rational planning process, incorporating certain cyclical elements3 such as the amendment of the objectives in the light of what was learnt from the formulation of the alternatives. Every stage of the study clearly flowed from what went before it. The logical structure and development of the planning process ensured that rationally determined conclusions flowed from the beginning of the study and from its subsequent stages . One is struck by the efficient study design, wherein all that was done was clearly relevant for arriving at a rational conclusion. The resources of the study team were apparently used to their fullest in a balanced manner with no overruns of time and budget. My criticisms do not reflect any basic structural weakness but arise from disappointment at certain omissions which are conspicuous precisely because of the high level of thought and clarity of analyiss evident in this study. M. Hu,t Technion Research and Development Foundation, Haifa