Patricia A Kennett

The Global Economic Crisis and the Reshaping of Housing Opportunities

Abstract This paper begins by establishing the multi-scalar interconnectivity between global financial flows, the economic crisis and housing. Focusing particularly on developments in England, it then considers the transformation of debates and the justification for the “socialization of losses” and the substantial cuts in public expenditure through a neo-liberal “austerity” agenda. The paper argues that rather than addressing the fundamental tensions and contradictions within the current financialized model of capitalism, outlined in the first part of the paper, the responses of the UK Coalition Government and financial institutions have reinforced the recalibration of risk and responsibility. It then goes on to demonstrate the dynamics of, and contradictions within, the housing system in the context of wider policy and societal change. The paper highlights the emergence of strategies with the potential not only to reshape housing opportunities but also to further diminish access to, security and quality of appropriate housing across all tenures.

Recession, Austerity and the ‘Great Risk Shift’: Local Government and Household Impacts and Responses in Bristol and Liverpool

Abstract A key feature of the rise of neoliberal politics and policy has been the progressive shift of risk from corporations and national states to the local government, individuals and households. In this article, we argue that, in the UK, ‘great risk shift’ has not only been intensified by recession and austerity but has also been marked by the unevenness of the redistribution of risk and insecurity across scales and places, and between different types of household. In order to capture the differentiated nature of experiences and impacts of recession, risk and insecurity, this article first considers the spatial and temporal dynamics of recession and the great risk shift. It then goes on to localise and embed these dynamics within the city regions and local authorities of Bristol and Liverpool, drawing on a quantitative survey of 1,013 households, across a range of different household types. The survey was segmented geographically and by ten different household types using Ipsos-MORI’s (ACORN) classification of residential neighbourhoods. Whilst the evolving crisis and subsequent austerity measure have been a ‘moving target’ for cities, the local government and households, the household survey was undertaken in the two city regions in the winter of 2011 and explored experiences and impacts since 2008. It will seek to demonstrate the nature, impact and ‘lived experience’ of the ‘risk shift’ during this period and consider the ongoing and broader implications for households, and national and local policymakers.

Home ownership and economic change in Japan

The state of the residential property market is an important issue for both the macro economy and for individual households in Japan. Home ownership is the main pillar of housing policy and as a very expensive commodity it has been deeply implicated in the economic problems of the 1990s. This paper considers the role of home ownership within the broader context of the post-war Japanese social structure. The core of the paper is an assessment of the impact of the recent period of financial turbulence on the home ownership sector. This discussion is set within the broader context of the new pressures emerging around the institutional arrangements which have sustained the Japanese social system.

Risk, residence and the post-Fordist city

In talking about dualized, polarized, and post-Fordist cities, it is often forgotten that major heterogeneities exist within neighborhoods and within the middle masses. Individualization and autonomization can be seen as the major causes of these heterogeneities. Because individual biographies and life course decisions increasingly have to be constructed personally, the differences between people and households cannot only be found between classes and between different areas but alos within these classes and areas. Households that may appear very similar in terms of standard social indicators may in fact be highly differentiated in relation to wider social resources, lifestyles, career paths, and prospects. Private solutions and safeguards against health, employment, and other risks create a greater diversity of circumstances. Individualization and autonomization affect all kinds of other processes, such as residential mobility, and coping strategies.

The uneven impact of austerity on the voluntary and community sector: A tale of two cities

There has been much debate about the impact of recession and austerity on the voluntary and community sector over recent years. Using secondary data from the 2008 National Survey of Third Sector Organisations, Clifford et al. (2013), writing in this journal, have argued that voluntary sector organisations located in more deprived local authorities are likely to suffer most due to the combined effect of cuts in government funding in these areas and their greater dependency on statutory funding. This paper develops this argument by exploring the sector’s changing relationship with the state through an empirical analysis of the differential impact of recession and austerity on voluntary and community organisations involved in public service delivery in the two English core cities of Bristol and Liverpool. This paper highlights how the scale and unevenness of public spending cuts, the levels of voluntary sector dependency on statutory funding and the rising demands for the sector’s services in a period of recession and austerity are being experienced locally. It portrays a sector whose resilience is being severely tested and one that is being forced rapidly to restructure and reposition itself in an increasingly challenging funding environment.

Precariousness in everyday life: homelessness in Japan

The Japanese social structure was established and has been maintained through a mixed economy comprising a balance between the state, the market, the family and the company. Vital elements in maintaining this balance have been the traditional family, full employment and increasing prosperity. More recently, developments have seen a reversal of economic prosperity, rising unemployment, increasing pressure to restructure the employment system and a potential rise in the number of households experiencing housing difficulties. In addition, the predominance of the nuclear family, the increased employment of women and decreased fertility has put the enterprise, family and state dynamic under challenge. This article explores some of the implications of these trends as some of the certainties of the past are giving way to increasing insecurity and risk across a wider section of society. It begins by exploring the institutional and social structure of post-war Japan, when there was little evidence of poverty and homelessness. It goes on to consider the recent rise in the number of people living on the streets of Japanese cities and the policies put in place. The article then outlines some of the processes of social change that have contributed to the growth in the numbers of homeless people in Japan. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.

From planned communities to deregulated spaces: Social and tenurial change in high quality state housing

This paper explores social and tenurial change on two estates of high quality state housing in the south of England. In doing so it offers a corrective to dominant contemporary perceptions of state housing as stigmatised policy failures and engages with wider debates about social change and tenure diversification. The paper argues that while tenurial distinctions are evident they are less significant than might be assumed from contemporary debates. Residents are as likely to construct narratives of neighbourhood change around life course and lifestyle as around the growth of home ownership. The paper also offers a further contribution to literature which has tracked the social consequences of privatisation policies in the state housing sector in Britain. The research involved unstructured interviews with 50 residents and key actors on the two estates which were examples of early British post-war state housing. Using administrative files, tenants and owners were drawn from different time periods, including both original and new residents. The research also involved archival work and a postal survey.

Policy paradigms, gender equality and translation: scales and disjuncture

The growing influence of transnational process, institutions and policy communities has contributed to the emergence of a global public policy that is distinct (although not separate) from the national process of policy-making. In this context gender equality and gender mainstreaming have become dominant policy and political narratives for addressing gender injustice. The focus of this paper is on developing the conceptual and theoretical links between global policy paradigms and gender equality and incorporating multi-scalarity, translation and disjuncture into our understanding of the ways in which policies are made, processed and enacted. The discussion begins by extending Halls concept of policy paradigm as a nationally bounded entity and highlighting the transnational processes and institutions contributing to the emergence of a global policy paradigm and global policy space. It then goes on to highlight the fluidity of policy paradigms and the importance of moving beyond the focus on techno-managerial “order” as the essence of the policy paradigm and indicators of change and instead to bring into sharper focus disjuncture and tensions.

Modes of Regulation and the Urban Poor

Within the framework of regulation theory, this paper attempts to link transformations in the social, economic and political spheres of older industrial nations, to the processes of exclusion occurring in western European cities. The focus is on housing as a central element of the post-war mode of development and homelessness as the most extreme form of social exclusion. This paper will concentrate on developments in Britain and Germany and will emphasise the divergent patterns of regulation which have emerged in both countries. It will attempt to identify the nature of a transition in the capitalist mode of regulation, and to highlight the development of housing and new forms of social stratification within an increasingly fragmented society.

Gender justice and global policy paradigms

Over the past decade, gender equality and gender mainstreaming principles have been adopted by a number of international and regional organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Bank and the European Union (EU), in what has been described as the “unprecedented” or “extraordinary” global spread of the concept (True & Mintrom, 2001; Woodward, 2008). The papers in this Special Issue seek to further develop our understanding of the multi-scalar dynamics through which sets of ideas can and do develop considerable coherence and persistence at the international level, contributing to the framing of ideas, language and discourse and transnational consensus building. The overarching issue of gender equality, together with gender mainstreaming as the strategic instrument have come to comprise an influential and almost “taken-for-granted” global policy paradigm which has moved, transformed and been translated across different scales, geographies and levels of policy-making. However, whilst there have been some gains and improvement in the status of women around the world and moves towards gender equality, it is clear that inequalities between men and women remain and that there has been a failure to translate the global policy paradigm of gender equality into the everyday lives of many men and women. Obstacles and barriers to gender mainstreaming and gender equality persist, as well as disjuncture between the ideal world of the policy paradigm and the lived experience. Thus, in the context of the global spread of the concept of gender equality and gender mainstreaming, the papers in this Special Issue are concerned with identifying, exploring and explaining the dynamics of, and obstacles to, gender justice, as well as potential strategies to overcome these. Emerging as a response to the demands of feminist activists in a number of countries and transnational women’s groups and becoming a policy priority on the international agenda in the 1980s and 1990s, gender mainstreaming has subsequently been adopted at the regional, national and local levels. Although the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, with the development of the Platform for Action and the subsequent adoption of gender mainstreaming, is often seen as a pivotal moment in the demand for gender justice, the process which led up to the achievements of 1995 lasted several decades. Transnational women’s movements were key participants in the series of UN conferences on women’s rights from the mid-1970s onwards, the 1975World Conference of the International Women’s Year and the start of the UN Decade for Women, including the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women, the 1980