Revisiting the Household for Housing Research

Bibliographic Data

ID12633818
AuthorsMegan Nethercote (0000-0001-5091-8029, RMIT University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume36
Issue2
Pages129-148
Publication date2018-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHousing Theory and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1403-6096 • E-ISSN: 1651-2278
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14036096.2018.1453865
OpenAlexW2796382628
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited89

Households are routinely adopted as units of analysis in housing-related research. The convergence of intensifying housing commodification with revisions to the social contract in Anglophone liberal market-based economies presents a salient juncture to revisit and reconsider the household, especially given rising and unequivocal expectations that contemporary households will operate as private “shock absorbers”. This article reviews conceptualizations and theoretical perspectives on households and draws attention to several “black box” issues. It argues that a relational perspective offers under-exploited opportunities to unlock and refine accounts of the impacts of this current convergence of pressures on households by foregrounding empirically important (shifts in) connections and (social) processes occurring within and between households, as well as across and between the “household sector” and other institutions. It specifies several strands of housing-related research where expanding debates in this way may be particularly productive

Commodification · Convergence (economics · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Embeddedness · Foregrounding · Political economy · Political science · Salient · Shock (circulatory · Social science · Sociology · Homelessness and Social Issues · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies

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