Housing, Theory and Society

Towards a Typology of Collaborative Housing in Colombia The renewed interest in collaborative housing in Latin America highlights the need for analytical frameworks that capture regional specificities. This paper contributes to academic and policy debat...

📢 New paper alert!

Daniela Sanjinés Encinales et al. draw out four types of collaborative housing in Colombia: “Eco-Communitarian”, “Developer-led”, “Resistance” and “Political”.

Thanks to the focus article authors for provoking this important debate and for all the commentating authors for participating and deepening our thinking on housing within rentier capitalism!

On Housing Inequalities, Struggles and Solidarities Across Tenures Susan Smith and Gavin Wood advance a new framework to understand inequalities and class struggles rooted in housing, proposing a focus on the edges of owner-occupation. They root their contribution...

@codyhochstenbach.bsky.social and Rowan Arundel highlights the importance of spatial scale and context to understand inequalities produced through housing, in ”On Housing Inequalities, Struggles and Solidarities Across Tenures”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Precarity in Common? Algorithmic Risk Profiling and the Politicization of ‘the Edges’ Of owner-Occupation This article offers a critical response to Smith and Wood’s concept of “the edges” of owner-occupation. While the category remains analytically diffuse, we argue that digital infrastructures – part...

Roger Burrows and Amber Howard’s commentary highlights the significance of algorithmic profiling under platform capitalism, ”Precarity in Common? Algorithmic Risk Profiling and the Politicization of ‘the Edges’ Of owner-Occupation”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Gertjan Wijburg focuses on the concept of home stewardship and temporary ownership in ”Temporary Ownership in a Home Steward Society” www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Exploring Alternative Housing Models Under Capitalism: Is Home Stewardship a Viable Alternative? This article critically engages with the authors’ proposal for home stewardship as an alternative to individual homeownership under financialised rentier capitalism. Their framing of housing as a k...

@ozlemcelik.bsky.social commentary urges for more theorizing around housing in capital circulation, housing as commons, and the role of the state in ”Exploring Alternative Housing Models Under Capitalism: Is Home Stewardship a Viable Alternative?”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Martin Duck, @mdemac.bsky.social and @mkonings.bsky.social on the role of states in reinforcing asset-based welfare policies and class positions, in ”The Edges of the Asset Economy: Housing, Class, and Social Change?”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A New Housing Class? This comment argues that the concept of the “zone of precarity” offers a valuable lens for rethinking recent housing class dynamics. Smith and Wood propose that individuals striving to own or feari...

@norawaitkus.bsky.social focuses on housing as an infrastructure of care in her comment ”A new Housing class?”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Edges of Owner-Occupation versus Rentier Capitalism Over the past half century, housing systems have been reconfigured through processes variously labelled financialization, assetization and rentierization. Unevenly advanced by successive rounds of ...

See all six commentaries on @sjs1869.bsky.social and Gavin A Woods focus article
”The Edges of Owner-Occupation versus Rentier Capitalism”
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Greetings from our editorial board meeting at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research (IBF) in Uppsala, with Hannu Ruonavaara, Timothy Blackwell, @desireefields.bsky.social, @shadeofjuniper.bsky.social, Chris Foye, @brettchristophers.bsky.social and @jiegson.bsky.social!

Precarity in Common? Algorithmic Risk Profiling and the Politicization of ‘the Edges’ Of owner-Occupation This article offers a critical response to Smith and Wood’s concept of “the edges” of owner-occupation. While the category remains analytically diffuse, we argue that digital infrastructures – part...

Roger Burrows and Amber Howard point to the importance of digital infrastructures and algorithmic risk profiling in their commentary "Precarity in Common? Algorithmic Risk Profiling and the Politicization of ‘the Edges’ Of owner-Occupation"

On Housing Inequalities, Struggles and Solidarities Across Tenures Susan Smith and Gavin Wood advance a new framework to understand inequalities and class struggles rooted in housing, proposing a focus on the edges of owner-occupation. They root their contribution...

@codyhochstenbach.bsky.social and Rowan Arundel draw out a three-folded critical reflection in "On Housing Inequalities, Struggles and Solidarities Across Tenures"

The Edges of Owner-Occupation versus Rentier Capitalism Over the past half century, housing systems have been reconfigured through processes variously labelled financialization, assetization and rentierization. Unevenly advanced by successive rounds of ...

🔔 Monday morning commentaries

We have two fresh commentaries to @sjs1869.bsky.social and Gavin Wood's focus article on the edges of home-ownership and rentier capitalism

“Somewhere You Can Be Yourself Proudly”: The Ambiguous Nature of ‘Home’ For Families Living in Substandard Rental Housing in Aotearoa New Zealand A growing body of work shows that creating a sense of home and engaging in homemaking activities is important to people even when in difficult situations such as homelessness or living in temporary...

⭐ Elinor Chisholm and Amber Logan use Iris Marion Young's theory of home to illuminate tenants' experiences of living in substandard housing, adding more complexity to the notion of home, in “'Somewhere You Can Be Yourself Proudly'..."

Managing Work-Home Spillover: Homemaking in China’s Employer-Provided Housing Employer-provided housing constitutes a significant source of accommodation for internal and international migrant workers globally, which is characterized by work-home spillovers. However, the liv...

⭐ Yunzheng Zhang, Hazel Easthope and Chris Martin explore the lived experiences of tenants living in employer-provided housing in "Managing Work-Home Spillover: Homemaking in China’s Employer-Provided Housing"

A Levinasian Right to Housing: What Emmanuel Levinas’s Phenomenology of House and Home Can Offer Housing Scholarship This paper turns to Emmanuel Levinas’s phenomenology of house and home to propose a Levinasian right to housing. After sketching the phenomenal conditions that Levinas’s phenomenology is grounded i...

🔔 Check out three of our most recent online first publications!

⭐ Dr Simon Hill writes about ethics of hospitality translating into housing stability, security and autonomy in "A Levinasian Right to Housing: What Emmanuel Levinas’s Phenomenology of House and Home Can Offer Housing Scholarship"

"a significant intellectual contribution in the form of a solid framework for housing and welfare ... the book is a must-read for researchers, graduate students, policymakers, and specialists in fields such as housing studies, welfare policy, public policy, sociology, and urban planning"

The Routledge Handbook of Housing and Welfare Published in Housing, Theory and Society (Ahead of Print, 2025)

🔔 New book review 🔔

📖 Marja Elsinga offers a reading of @martingrander.bsky.social and Mark Stephens edited book The Routledge Handbook of Housing and Welfare
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Urban Inequality in Finland: Land, Housing and the Nordic Welfare State Published in Housing, Theory and Society (Ahead of Print, 2025)

📖 Book review by Henrik Gutzon Larsen of Urban Inequality in Finland: Land, Housing and the Nordic Welfare State, authored by Mika Hyötylainen

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Understanding Housing Justice in Shared Housing This article conceptually explores housing justice through the worked example of shared housing in the private rental sector (PRS), where people live with non-family. Drawing on interviews with 25 ...

🔔 Two new highlights!

✏️ Understanding Housing Justice in Shared Housing by Zoë Goodall, Wendy Stone, Kay Cook and Deb Batterham investigating shared private rental housing through the lenses of relationality and housing justice.

➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Great piece, defo worth a read

“I Can’t Imagine Living Anywhere Else”: A Qualitative Longitudinal View of Low Carbon Home Residence There is an identified need for housing to decarbonize, yet new technical configurations of homes have implications for the everyday lives and relationships that unfold within them. Active homes, w...

🔸 Fiona Shirani and others presents a long-temporal view on subjective experiences of living in innovative low-carbon homes
➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Edges of Owner-Occupation versus Rentier Capitalism Over the past half century, housing systems have been reconfigured through processes variously labelled financialization, assetization and rentierization. Unevenly advanced by successive rounds of ...

We have some new online publications, great readings on home ownership, rentierism, and decarbonized living!

🔸 Susan Smith and Gavin Wood discusses the edges of owner occupation and rentier capitalism
➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Housing Inequalities: Definitions, Understandings and Approaches Housing inequalities are a key focus for housing research, yet how inequalities are defined and understood is rarely discussed. Recognising the potential for weak abstractions to limit the framing ...

We offer some newly published Monday-reading about how to define housing inequalities, by Theo Barry Born, Jenny Preece and David Robinson

➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

“You Know You’re from Le Lignon If … ” Negotiating Neighbourhood Belonging on Social Media This article examines how social media shapes expressions of belonging through the analysis of a neighbourhood-based Facebook group as an online local community. While the group’s title suggests an...

We have fresh paper out on digitalization and neighbourhood belonging, and the connection between urban social life and online communities by Nerea Viana Alzola and Maxime Felder

➡️ "'You Know You’re from Le Lignon If … ' Negotiating Neighbourhood Belonging on Social Media"

Housing, Theory and Society Volume 42, Issue 4 of Housing, Theory and Society

Check out Issue 4 2025 with articles on homelessness, community housing, COVID-lockdown and more

www.tandfonline.com/toc/shou20/4...

The Position of Young Adults on the Amsterdam Housing Market. Combining the Housing Pathway and the Capability Approach In Amsterdam, young people face persistent housing difficulties due to soaring house prices and rents, precarious labour conditions, shrinking social housing, and ongoing gentrification. Drawing on...

Check out our latest publication ✨

🔸 The Position of Young Adults on the Amsterdam Housing Market. Combining the Housing Pathway and the Capability Approach by Gentili & Hoekstra, investigating young people's housing trajectories.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Accumulating Financial Vulnerability, Not Financial Security: Social Reproduction and Older Women’s Homelessness In rich-economy countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand women are increasingly experiencing first-time homelessness in older age. Focusing on the specific case of Aus...

🔸 Accumulating Financial Vulnerability, Not Financial Security: Social Reproduction and Older Women’s Homelessness by Catherine Hastings and Lyn Craig
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Insecure Housing and the Ongoing Search for Ontological Security: How Low-Income Older Women Cope The paper examines how people experiencing persistent housing insecurity hold on to or restore ontological security. Conceptually it recognises ontological security as an “ongoing accomplishment” t...

🔸 Insecure Housing and the Ongoing Search for Ontological Security: How Low-Income Older Women Cope by Emma Power
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Intersectionalizing Housing Discrimination Under Rentier Capitalism in an Asset-Based Society Rental discrimination is a key factor in the reproduction of socio-economic inequality under emergent rentier capitalism within the asset society. Our research into the effects of discrimination in...

🔸 Intersectionalizing Housing Discrimination Under Rentier Capitalism in an Asset-Based Society by Peta Wolifson, Sophia Maalsen and Dallas Rogers
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....