David Clapham
Biographic Data
| ID | 334122 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Clapham |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Clapham |
| SIGNATURE | CLAPHAM D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Glasgow |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3075-7621 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 51 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 615 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 51 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
Pragmatic Socio-economics
This commentary examines the concept of “pragmatic socio-economics” and argues that it is unlikely to offer a major breakthrough in the search for a holistic approach to the study of housing. Although the authors outline the serious barriers to the integration of sociological insights into neo-classical economics, they seek to avoid these through the adoption of concepts, such as that of social norms, that could be acceptable to economists. The r…
The Demise of the Welfare Regimes Approach? A Response to Stephens
The drawbacks of the welfare regimes approach mean that a more holistic framework is needed for comparative housing research
Author’s Reply
Housing Theory, Housing Research and Housing Policy
Jim Kemeny in 1992 criticized existing housing research for neglecting social theory and being overly positivist and policy focused. The result has been a strengthening of the conceptual basis of housing research in general, but also a growing schism between researchers who focus on policy relevancy and those that pursue more theoretical work. This paper challenges this schism and argues for theoretically based and policy-relevant research. First…
Housing and housing management
Housing and housing management: balancing the two key contracts." Housing Studies, 33(8), pp. 1286–1287
Home-ownership as a social norm and positional good
Much attention has been devoted to examining the absolute benefits of home-ownership (e.g. security and autonomy). This paper, by contrast, is concerned with conceptualising and testing the relative benefits of home-ownership; those benefits that depend on an individual’s status in society. Home-ownership has previously been analysed as a social norm, implying that the relative benefits (costs) associated with being an owner (renter) are positive…
The Concept of Subjective Well-being in Housing Research
The aim of this article is to review the ways in which subjective well-being has been conceptualized within housing research, with a view to evaluating the use of the concept, the insights it has generated, the problems that have been experienced and the possible range of lessons that might be taken forward. The article begins with an analysis of the reasons why subjective well-being has become popular as a conceptual tool in many fields. The art…
Intentions to Move from Homelessness to Social Inclusion
A key aim of homelessness services is not only to ensure that homeless people attain a secure home, but that this is a pathway to wider social inclusion. However, relatively little is known about the psychological elements that are essential for homeless people to engage with these pathways, nor whether these elements combine in ways that are predictable from previous research. In the present work, we examined both demographic and behavioural pre…
Housing policies in Latin America
The aim of this paper is to examine the differences and similarities in housing policies in the four Latin American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. The paper uses the welfare regime approach, modified by a recognition of path dependence, to identify a number of phases that each country has passed through. However, attention is drawn to the substantial differences in the circumstances in each country and the extent and duration…
The Housing Pathways of Young People in the UK
The authors examine the housing pathways of young people in the UK in the years 1999 to 2008, and consider the changing nature of these pathways in the run up to 2020. They employ a highly innovative methodology, which begins with the identification and description of key drivers likely to affect young people's housing circumstances in the future. The empirical identification and analysis of housing pathways is then achieved using multiple-sequen…
The Embodied Use of the Material Home
This paper examines the relationship between embodied individuals and the home that they inhabit. Although there has been some work on both the embodied practices in the home and on the material nature of the home itself, this has not been integrated with the majority of research on home which has focused on meaning. It is argued that there is a lack of a unifying framework that can incorporate both use and meaning elements of home. A way of inco…
I Wouldn’t Start From Here”
The insights of behavioural economics are questioned and an approach suggested that is based on empirical studies of how people actually behave in housing markets
Exploring Homeless People's Use of Outreach Services
A number of critiques have been published drawing attention to the gaps in research methods applied to issues surrounding homelessness and service utilisation in Britain. This paper discusses the use of social identity, a theory drawn from the field of applied social psychology, and synthesises it with the pathways model, thereby providing a framework to further explore service utilisation. The synthesised framework was used to predict the uptake…
The role of efficacy and well‐being in guiding the use of education and training services by young homeless mothers
This paper builds on previous work applying the concept of well-being to the field of housing. It uses the concepts of self-esteem, efficacy and social identity to explore the situations of a group of young homeless mothers. In particular, it focuses on the impact of well-being factors, among others, in understanding the uptake of education and training services. The paper concludes by arguing that well-being issues are crucial for housing agenci…
Housing Market Renewal and Social Class
Chris Allen London: Routledge, 2008, ISBN‐13:978‐0‐415‐41561‐3 The focus of this book is the experience in an area of Liverpool of the government Housing Market Renewal (HMR) programme from the poi
Happiness, well-being and housing policy
The literature on the meaning of home emphasises the security, positive meaning and self-esteem that home generates. However, housing policy has traditionally viewed houses as units of accommodation rather than homes. This article tackles the question of whether it is possible to devise a housing policy that aims at improving the self-esteem and positive identity of residents. The article reviews the growing literature stressing the importance of…
Peter King
Introduction to the Special Issue – A Theory of Housing
2008 was the 25th anniversary of Housing, Theory and Society and its antecedent the Scandinavian Journal of Housing and Planning. To mark the occasion a plenary debate was organized at the European Network for Housing Research conference in Dublin on 8 July 2008. This special issue has arisen from that debate. \nThe subject of the debate was the role of theory in housing research. Clearly this fits with the journal’s objective, established by for…
The meaning of housing
The meaning of housing
This book offers a fresh new approach to the study of housing. It explores the meaning that housing has for individuals and households by examining ‘housing pathways’. Housing pathways refers to the varying household forms that individuals experience and the housing routes that they take over time. The book argues that housing has increasingly become a means to an end rather than an end in itself. The end is personal fulfilment and the main task …
Pathways approaches to homelessness research
Research on homelessness has focused on either structural forces or individual actions or, where both are considered, has failed to find an effective way of analysing the two sets of factors together. This article looks at one way of doing this through the adoption of a ‘pathways’ framework. The article reviews existing pathways research on homelessness and argues that existing studies do not analyse the interaction of structural and action eleme…
Author's Response
Housing Pathways
Many different frameworks can be used to describe and understand the set of relationships involved in the production, consumption and distribution of housing. This paper is an attempt to put forward one way of looking at what will be termed the housing field. This is not meant to deny the validity or usefulness of other frameworks or to put forward a housing theory, which explains all there is to know about the nature and meaning of housing. The …
Bringing Actors Back In
(2001). Bringing Actors Back In: Towards an Institutional Perspective. Housing, Theory and Society: Vol. 18, No. 1-2, pp. 15-16
Bringing Actors Back In
Housing Pathways
Many different frameworks can be used to describe and understand the set of relationships involved in the production, consumption and distribution of housing. This paper is an attempt to put forward one way of looking at what will be termed the housing field. This is not meant to deny the validity or usefulness of other frameworks or to put forward a housing theory, which explains all there is to know about the nature and meaning of housing. The …
Pathways approaches to homelessness research
Research on homelessness has focused on either structural forces or individual actions or, where both are considered, has failed to find an effective way of analysing the two sets of factors together. This article looks at one way of doing this through the adoption of a ‘pathways’ framework. The article reviews existing pathways research on homelessness and argues that existing studies do not analyse the interaction of structural and action eleme…
The Housing Pathways of Young People in the UK
The authors examine the housing pathways of young people in the UK in the years 1999 to 2008, and consider the changing nature of these pathways in the run up to 2020. They employ a highly innovative methodology, which begins with the identification and description of key drivers likely to affect young people's housing circumstances in the future. The empirical identification and analysis of housing pathways is then achieved using multiple-sequen…
Happiness, well-being and housing policy
The literature on the meaning of home emphasises the security, positive meaning and self-esteem that home generates. However, housing policy has traditionally viewed houses as units of accommodation rather than homes. This article tackles the question of whether it is possible to devise a housing policy that aims at improving the self-esteem and positive identity of residents. The article reviews the growing literature stressing the importance of…
The Concept of Subjective Well-being in Housing Research
The aim of this article is to review the ways in which subjective well-being has been conceptualized within housing research, with a view to evaluating the use of the concept, the insights it has generated, the problems that have been experienced and the possible range of lessons that might be taken forward. The article begins with an analysis of the reasons why subjective well-being has become popular as a conceptual tool in many fields. The art…
The Embodied Use of the Material Home
This paper examines the relationship between embodied individuals and the home that they inhabit. Although there has been some work on both the embodied practices in the home and on the material nature of the home itself, this has not been integrated with the majority of research on home which has focused on meaning. It is argued that there is a lack of a unifying framework that can incorporate both use and meaning elements of home. A way of inco…
Rationing, Choice and Constraint
Social segregation in public housing has usually been explained in institutional terms by reference to the policies and practices of the local authority. This paper draws on data from a household survey of new council tenants in Glasgow to demonstrate that the outcome of the rationing process cannot be attributed to factors originating at the level of the institution alone. The research examines stages of the allocation process, in particular the…
The social construction of housing management
Although housing management as an occupational role has existed for over a century it has never received an adequate definition, and its scope and emphasis have varied over time. This paper locates housing management within the debates on the nature of the professions and bureaucracy, and suggests that these analyses are inadequate. It is proposed that a more fruitful approach in understanding the nature of housing management is derived from a co…
Introduction to the Special Issue – A Theory of Housing
2008 was the 25th anniversary of Housing, Theory and Society and its antecedent the Scandinavian Journal of Housing and Planning. To mark the occasion a plenary debate was organized at the European Network for Housing Research conference in Dublin on 8 July 2008. This special issue has arisen from that debate. \nThe subject of the debate was the role of theory in housing research. Clearly this fits with the journal’s objective, established by for…
Housing Theory, Housing Research and Housing Policy
Jim Kemeny in 1992 criticized existing housing research for neglecting social theory and being overly positivist and policy focused. The result has been a strengthening of the conceptual basis of housing research in general, but also a growing schism between researchers who focus on policy relevancy and those that pursue more theoretical work. This paper challenges this schism and argues for theoretically based and policy-relevant research. First…
Home-ownership as a social norm and positional good
Much attention has been devoted to examining the absolute benefits of home-ownership (e.g. security and autonomy). This paper, by contrast, is concerned with conceptualising and testing the relative benefits of home-ownership; those benefits that depend on an individual’s status in society. Home-ownership has previously been analysed as a social norm, implying that the relative benefits (costs) associated with being an owner (renter) are positive…
Privatisation and the East European Housing Model
Comparative research and analysis in hous-ing has had a rather contentious progress and no consensus has emerged around any model of analysis. Many international comparisons
Performance Assessment and Accountability in British Housing Management
This paper looks at performance assessment in the management of public housing in Britain within the context of the liberalisation of housing policy undertaken in the last decade. In particular, the focus is on the impact of appraisal systems on the accountability of housing management. The paper concludes that appraisal systems have enhanced accountability to government but done little to enhance the legitimate accountability to the consumer of …
Housing policies in Latin America
The aim of this paper is to examine the differences and similarities in housing policies in the four Latin American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. The paper uses the welfare regime approach, modified by a recognition of path dependence, to identify a number of phases that each country has passed through. However, attention is drawn to the substantial differences in the circumstances in each country and the extent and duration…
Housing Management
The focus of this article is the management of public rented housing in Britain (that is, housing provided by local authorities and housing associations). The objective was to understand the nature of housing management as it is practised by housing managers on a day-to-day basis. This research was therefore undertaken to discover how housing managers viewed their world. More specifically, the aim was to examine the way in which housing managers …
Housing Policy and ‘Special Needs
The concept of ‘special needs’ is one with which all housing practitioners and housing policy analysts will be familiar. It is a concept which is increasingly the touchstone for state involvement in housing and it is a label which can unlock the door to resources for many groups of people such as ‘the elderly’, ‘the mentally handicapped’ and ‘the physically disabled’. The objectives of this paper are to examine the ‘special needs’ concept by anal…
The Meaning of Home Ownership in the Transition from Socialism
The nature of home ownership is contested within housing studies, with disagreement over whether it is a 'natural desire' or an unimportant feature of the housing situation. This paper sheds some light on this debate by examining the meaning of home ownership in Slovenia both before and after democratic changes in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s and the 1980s there was an acute housing shortage and households opted for the tenure which provide…
Direct Democracy in Practice
This paper evaluates the achievement of ‘direct democracy’ in Community Ownership schemes. Community Ownership is a programme in Scotland to create small, community-based housing associations and cooperatives in areas of former council housing. The paper reviews four different views of direct democracy: as a form of radical politics; as a means of encouraging better or more rational decision making; as a method of rolling back the state, improvin…
Community-based Housing Organisations and the Local Governance Debate
This paper examines criticisms of the accountability of housing organisations in Britain and assesses whether community-based housing organisations can provide answers. A particular focus is placed on the Committee on Standards in Public Life, which has emphasised the desirability of 'downwards' accountability to communities while at the same time limiting the central controls of autonomous local bodies. The Committee on Standards in Public Life …
Tenant Participation and Tenant Power in British Council Housing
In this article we examine the relationship between tenant participation and tenants’ power. This is done by adopting an approach to power put forward by Clegg (1989) and using it to examine the findings of a study of tenant Participation based on a national survey of local authorities and detailed case studies in six local authorities in Britain. The key question addressed is whether tenant participation empowers tenants. The conclusion is that …
The Social Construction of Housing Management Research
Individual Self-provision and the Scottish Housing System
This paper provides a preliminary examination of individual self-provision of housing in Scotland; that is, instances where individuals are directly involved in the production of their own house, rather than buying a house on the market. After a brief overview of the history of individual self-provision in Britain, the characteristics of the sector in Britain, and particularly in Scotland, are outlined. The core of the paper reports the results o…
Allocation Systems and Housing Choice
This article examines the major approach to the study of allocation in British public housing, i.e. the institutional approach. It argues that the approach is unsatisfactory because it ignores factors which originate from outside of the institutional context and also the interaction between the individual household and the institution. These drawbacks can be remedied by focusing on the choices facing households, by using household choice models s…
The Effectiveness of Housing Management
This article examines the performance of different kinds of landlords in providing housing management services to their tenants by reviewing a number of recent studies on housing management effectiveness. In particular the performance of mass‐landlords (councils and larger housing associations) is contrasted with that of small‐scale, locally‐based, resident controlled landlords such as co‐operatives or community‐based housing associations. Althou…
Housing and the Economy
Allocation Systems and Housing Choice
This article examines the major approach to the study of allocation in British public housing, i.e. the institutional approach. It argues that the approach is unsatisfactory because it ignores factors which originate from outside of the institutional context and also the interaction between the individual household and the institution. These drawbacks can be remedied by focusing on the choices facing households, by using household choice models s…
Rational Planning and Politics
This article examines one of the criticisms of local authority corporate planning which is that it is ill-suited to the local political process. The examination is in three parts. Firstly the corporate planning literature is reviewed to see what view of politics it reveals. Secondly an ideal corporate planning process based on the concept of rationality is compared with a political process which is made up of differences in perspective based on c…
Management of the local state
Housing Choice and Search Strategies within an Administered Housing System
In this paper findings are presented concerning the behaviour of households moving into and within the public-housing sector in a major British city. In contrast to most research on the public sector, the approach adopted is explicitly derived from theories and studies of housing choice and search. Data from an extensive household survey of new council tenants are used to demonstrate that households undertake a range of search strategies which ar…
Rationing, Choice and Constraint
Social segregation in public housing has usually been explained in institutional terms by reference to the policies and practices of the local authority. This paper draws on data from a household survey of new council tenants in Glasgow to demonstrate that the outcome of the rationing process cannot be attributed to factors originating at the level of the institution alone. The research examines stages of the allocation process, in particular the…
Importing housing policy
Aspects of housing policy are often seen to be transferable across national boundaries, even though the economic and political contexts are different. This paper examines co‐ownership, a policy initiative which was imported to Britain from Scandinavia in the 1960s and which had a short and problematic life. It analyses the reasons for the failure of co‐ownership in Britain but suggests that it may be possible to establish new forms of co‐operativ…
Co-operative Ownership of Former Council Housing
A new consensus seems to be emerging that many of the problems of council housing in Britain can be overcome by devolving the management and sometimes the ownership of the housing to co-operatives. In this article an assessment is made of the evidence for this view and a pioneering example of the establishment of co-operatives in former council housing in Glasgow is described. It is concluded that the success of such schemes will depend on their …
Housing Policy and ‘Special Needs
The concept of ‘special needs’ is one with which all housing practitioners and housing policy analysts will be familiar. It is a concept which is increasingly the touchstone for state involvement in housing and it is a label which can unlock the door to resources for many groups of people such as ‘the elderly’, ‘the mentally handicapped’ and ‘the physically disabled’. The objectives of this paper are to examine the ‘special needs’ concept by anal…
Ambiguities and Contradictions in the Provision of Sheltered Housing for Older People
This paper examines the current model of sheltered housing and explores a central contradiction in that model: namely that if only those people who most need and appreciate the unique features of sheltered housing were allocated places in schemes, the existing model ultimately could not provide sufficient support. This central contradiction leads to a fundamental lack of clarity in the role of sheltered housing. This is reflected in the ambiguiti…
The Effectiveness of Housing Management
This article examines the performance of different kinds of landlords in providing housing management services to their tenants by reviewing a number of recent studies on housing management effectiveness. In particular the performance of mass‐landlords (councils and larger housing associations) is contrasted with that of small‐scale, locally‐based, resident controlled landlords such as co‐operatives or community‐based housing associations. Althou…
The Origins and Activities of Tenants' Associations in Britain
This paper presents the results of a survey of tenants' associations in six local authority areas in Britain. The aim is to dispel the prevalent notion that there is a common reason for the formation of tenants' associations and that they travel a similar evolutionary path. Rather the paper aims to show that tenants' groups are formed for a variety of reasons and can follow a number of paths. It draws particular attention to the actions and attit…
Performance Assessment and Accountability in British Housing Management
This paper looks at performance assessment in the management of public housing in Britain within the context of the liberalisation of housing policy undertaken in the last decade. In particular, the focus is on the impact of appraisal systems on the accountability of housing management. The paper concludes that appraisal systems have enhanced accountability to government but done little to enhance the legitimate accountability to the consumer of …
The social bases of tenant organisation
From a reading of much literature emanating from the 1970s, one would get the impression that the tenants’ movement in Britain was a united force organised into ‘urban social movements’ which showed an orientation towards militant collective action. On the basis of research in six local authority areas, this paper shows that such a picture gives an inaccurate view of the tenants’ movement in Britain in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Rather the t…
The Effectiveness of Housing Management
Individual Self-provision and the Scottish Housing System
This paper provides a preliminary examination of individual self-provision of housing in Scotland; that is, instances where individuals are directly involved in the production of their own house, rather than buying a house on the market. After a brief overview of the history of individual self-provision in Britain, the characteristics of the sector in Britain, and particularly in Scotland, are outlined. The core of the paper reports the results o…
Tenant Participation and Tenant Power in British Council Housing
In this article we examine the relationship between tenant participation and tenants’ power. This is done by adopting an approach to power put forward by Clegg (1989) and using it to examine the findings of a study of tenant Participation based on a national survey of local authorities and detailed case studies in six local authorities in Britain. The key question addressed is whether tenant participation empowers tenants. The conclusion is that …
Community Ownership and the Break-up of Council Housing in Britain
This article provides an assessment of the Community Ownership programme in Scotland, which involved the transfer of council housing to par-value co-operatives and community-based housing associations. The evaluation is considered under four headings: resident involvement; the effectiveness of housing management; neighbourhood impacts; and financial appraisal. The findings lend support to the government's programme of breaking up council housing,…
Privatisation and the East European Housing Model
Comparative research and analysis in hous-ing has had a rather contentious progress and no consensus has emerged around any model of analysis. Many international comparisons
Housing and the Economy
The Meaning of Home Ownership in the Transition from Socialism
The nature of home ownership is contested within housing studies, with disagreement over whether it is a 'natural desire' or an unimportant feature of the housing situation. This paper sheds some light on this debate by examining the meaning of home ownership in Slovenia both before and after democratic changes in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s and the 1980s there was an acute housing shortage and households opted for the tenure which provide…
Direct Democracy in Practice
This paper evaluates the achievement of ‘direct democracy’ in Community Ownership schemes. Community Ownership is a programme in Scotland to create small, community-based housing associations and cooperatives in areas of former council housing. The paper reviews four different views of direct democracy: as a form of radical politics; as a means of encouraging better or more rational decision making; as a method of rolling back the state, improvin…
The social construction of housing management
Although housing management as an occupational role has existed for over a century it has never received an adequate definition, and its scope and emphasis have varied over time. This paper locates housing management within the debates on the nature of the professions and bureaucracy, and suggests that these analyses are inadequate. It is proposed that a more fruitful approach in understanding the nature of housing management is derived from a co…
Problems and Potentials of Sheltered Housing
Alex Marsh and Moyra Riseborough, Making Ends Meet: Older People, Housing Association Costs and the Affordability of Rented Housing , National Federation of Housing Associations, London, 1995, 93 pp., no price, ISBN 0 862 97307 4. Anthea Tinker, Fay Wright and Hannah Zeilig, Difficult to Let Sheltered Housing , Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1995, 174 pp., £17.50, ISBN 0 113 21964 4. Moyra Riseborough (ed.), Opening-up the Resources of …
The Social Construction of Housing Management Research
Housing Management
The focus of this article is the management of public rented housing in Britain (that is, housing provided by local authorities and housing associations). The objective was to understand the nature of housing management as it is practised by housing managers on a day-to-day basis. This research was therefore undertaken to discover how housing managers viewed their world. More specifically, the aim was to examine the way in which housing managers …
Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism (36 works) · Political science (33 works) · Economics (31 works) · Sociology (30 works) · Business (29 works) · Computer Science (15 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Housing Market and Economics (10 works)