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comparative housing policy

Social Housing after the GFC: Further Evidence

The French Social Housing Sector at the Crossroads of Budgetary Constraints and Social Missions

The French Social Housing Sector at the Crossroads of Budgetary Constraints and Social Missions

France has a high rate of production of new housing and the Global Financial Crisis has had little impact on a country of fixed-rate housing loans and strong guarantees for home-buyers. At the same time, the social rental sector, managed by a powerful network of public and private (not-for-profit) companies, has greatly increased its housing production thanks to the use of a financial mechanism that is independent of mainstream finance. Housing should be easily available throughout France. But this is not the case in the capital region and for some disadvantaged households. Critics regularly speak out against the deficiencies of French housing policies. Opponents of increased public spending consider that too much public money is being spent on this, while supporters of the free market say that the legal and institutional framework hinders private initiatives. Advocates of homeless people and low-income groups complain about the high cost of housing and segregation processes. This paper presents the debates and discussions regarding the pros and cons of housing policies in France at a time of severe budgetary constraints.

26.12.2017 | Jean-Pierre Schaefer | Volume: 4 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 29-38 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.2.384
Social Housing after the GFC: Further Evidence

Mind the Poorest: Social Housing Provision in Post-crisis Romania

Mind the Poorest: Social Housing Provision in Post-crisis Romania

This paper reflects on recent social housing developments in Romania. It understands social housing as rental social housing and affordable housing, a differentiation that is not made at the national level and introduces a sub-type of affordable housing, which is little documented in current research and is here termed ‘self-help affordable housing’. The paper looks at the legacy of socialist housing and social housing before and after the crisis. It makes an important claim that needs further investigation: current social housing provision in Romania overlooks the poorest households. This has implications for the country’s political leadership; the capacity for financial and institutional innovation; and wider strategies for policy integration.

24.12.2017 | Catalina Turcu | Volume: 4 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 54-66 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.2.386
Social Housing after the GFC: Further Evidence

Utilising Social Housing during the Post-2009 Crisis: Problems and Constraints in the Case of Greece

Utilising Social Housing during the Post-2009 Crisis: Problems and Constraints in the Case of Greece

How can European social housing institutions contribute to combating housing deprivation in the context of the post-2009 crisis? The paper examines the main issues and constraints in the Greek case by first questioning the extent of the immediate relevance of major established social housing models in western Europe vis-a-vis housing assistance for the needy and second by highlighting the exceptional conditions in the European South that make for very limited social housing sectors and a predominant bias in favour of widespread owner-occupation across all social classes. Both features are especially pronounced in Greece, where, in fact, social rented housing has never emerged as a viable model. Nevertheless, social housing assistance for renters based on fair allowances should be the main priority under the present crisis conditions, while ‘bricks-and-mortar’ social rented housing can only have a marginal role.

22.12.2017 | Dimitris Emmanuel | Volume: 4 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 76-83 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.2.388
Social Housing after the GFC: Further Evidence

Independent Evaluation of Social Housing Operations: Challenges and Lessons to Be Learned

Independent Evaluation of Social Housing Operations: Challenges and Lessons to Be Learned

In recent years, the Evaluation Department of the Council of Europe Development Bank has conducted a series of independent evaluations of CEB-financed operations in the social housing sector targeting special vulnerable groups. Building on evaluation evidence and experience, two strategic issues are presented: the high level of complexity of such operations and the various facets of their sustainability. This paper underlines the significant learning and accountability potential of evaluations of social housing operations. At the same time, it underscores the added value of a holistic approach to evaluation, in the face of a simplistic, but currently predominant, output-oriented focus during monitoring.

20.12.2017 | Luigi Cuna | Volume: 4 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 99-106 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.2.390
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

Social Housing in Europe: Legacies, New Trends and the Crisis

Social Housing in Europe: Legacies, New Trends and the CrisisEditorial.
29.6.2017 | Teresio Poggio, Christine Whitehead | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 1-10 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.3.1.319
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

Social Housing Models: Past and Future

Social Housing Models: Past and FutureThis paper looks at the rationale for social housing; examines the models that have been used in Europe over the last century and how social housing might be maintained into the future.
28.6.2017 | Christine Whitehead | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 11-20 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.320
Social Housing after the GFC: New Trends across Europe

The Situation of Social Housing in Switzerland

The Situation of Social Housing in SwitzerlandWithout a national or cantonal policy for the provision of affordable, so-called social housing, Switzerland`s way is unique in Europe. Finding appropriate housing is left to the people themselves. The challenge of building sustainable communities in urban centres in Switzerland has to address the tight housing market due to economic growth, immigration, and the renewed attractiveness of urban living. In the absence of a national low-cost housing policy, every growing city thus has to design its own strategies and implement local policies and programmes in order to counteract such developments. The role of housing cooperatives is important now and in the future. The paper gives an overview on the Swiss situation after the GFC and discusses the successful strategies of the provision and protection of affordable housing in the major city of Zurich.
22.6.2017 | Marie Glaser | Volume: 4 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 72-80 | 10.13060/23362839.2017.4.1.326
Special issue on Nature-Home-Housing: Greening and Commoning of Urban Space

Participatory Design Processes for the Development of Green Areas of Large-scale Housing: Case Studies from Budapest and Riga

Participatory Design Processes for the Development of Green Areas of Large-scale Housing: Case Studies from Budapest and Riga

Large housing estates (LHE) found in CEE countries can be seen as a legacy of socialism. Their endurance in these countries is still evident: the future of LHEs is substantially linked to their physical and social characteristics formed during socialism and their decline in status in Hungary and Latvia. The Western European practice of urban rehabilitation and community initiatives has gained more and more ground (sometimes literally) as of late. Our paper examines this phenomenon by analysing examples of converted green space of LHEs in two former socialist cities - a neglected and underused former “traffic park” in Budapest and a typical LHE “courtyard” overgrown and unused in Riga. We focus on the conversational process and the participatory approach of inhabitants and analyse how the redesigning of green areas involving local communities can lead to inhabitants feeling more at home in this housing structure.

29.12.2016 | Adrienne Csizmady, Sandra Treija, Zsuzsanna Fáczányi, Péter István Balogh | Volume: 3 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 17-25 | 10.13060/23362839.2016.3.2.294

The Use of Esping-Andersen and Kemeny’s Welfare and Housing Regimes in Housing Research

The Use of Esping-Andersen and Kemeny’s Welfare and Housing Regimes in Housing Research

This article provides a critique of the use of Esping-Andersen and Kemeny’s typologies of welfare and housing regimes, both of which are often used as starting points for country selections in comparative housing research. We find that it is conceivable that housing systems may reflect the wider welfare system or diverge from it, so it is not possible to “read across” a housing system from Esping-Andersen’s welfare regimes. Moreover, both are dated and require revisiting to establish whether they still reflect reality. Of the two frameworks, Esping-Andersen’s use of the state-market-family triangle is more geographically mobile. Ultimately, housing systems are likely to be judged on the “housing outcomes” that they produce. However, it is suggested that current use of variables within EU-SILC in order to establish “housing outcomes” may be misleading since they do not reflect acceptable standards between countries with greatly differing general living standards and cultural norms.

27.6.2016 | Mark Stephens | Volume: 3 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 19-29 | 10.13060/23362839.2016.3.1.250
Briefing paper: What are the strengths and weaknesses of pan-European data sets, EU-SILC and EQLS? Specifically, should we trust them when making international housing comparisons?

What Have ECHP and EU-SILC to Contribute to the Comparative Study of Housing?

What Have ECHP and EU-SILC to Contribute to the Comparative Study of Housing?

This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of pan-European datasets, in particular ECHP and EU-SILC, for research in housing. Although ‘housing’ is a complex topic when studied from a European comparative perspective, I argue that there is no inherent reason why housing should be less amenable to cross-national research than other equally complex topics in comparative social science research, such as research into family change and stability, or the impact of educational systems on social stratification. Given appropriate theory, conceptualisation and contextualisation, along with strong methodologies, meaningful and informative research in housing with ECHP and EU-SILC are possible. There are however a number of limitations, which are mainly related to the fact that both datasets are geared towards the ‘production’ of a ‘system of social indicators’ informing European and national governments. Because of these limitations, ECHP and in particular EU-SILC are less attractive and less useful for academic research then they could potentially be.

27.12.2015 | Caroline Dewilde | Volume: 2 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 19-26 | 10.13060/23362839.2015.3.3.238
Briefing paper: What are the strengths and weaknesses of pan-European data sets, EU-SILC and EQLS? Specifically, should we trust them when making international housing comparisons?

EU-SILC: Should We Make Do with What We Have?

EU-SILC: Should We Make Do with What We Have?

In this Briefing Paper the focus is on the EU-SILC based on the question: What are the strengths and weakness of the pan-European data set EU-SILC which stands for ‘European Union Statistics of Income and Living Conditions’? How useful is this database when making international housing comparisons? The examples in this paper are based on my experience with the EU-SILC and illustrate a number of themes as setting norms for all countries and differences between housing and poverty research. My conclusion is that some of these measures transcend the database evaluation and are concerned with the definition of concepts. As long as there are no ‘better’ data alternatives, we should make do with what we have, but carefully and transparently.

26.12.2015 | Marietta Haffner | Volume: 2 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 27-34 | 10.13060/23362839.2015.3.2.239
Special issue on Housing Asset-Based Welfare

Housing: Asset-Based Welfare or the ‘Engine of Inequality’?

Housing: Asset-Based Welfare or the ‘Engine of Inequality’?

Editorial

28.6.2015 | Mark Stephens, Martin Lux, Petr Sunega | Volume: 2 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 22-31 | 10.13060/23362839.2015.2.1.173

State - Market - Family Triangle Revisited: Visualizing and Expanding a Housing Studies Theoretical Tool

State - Market - Family Triangle Revisited: Visualizing and Expanding a Housing Studies Theoretical Tool

This short paper revisits and revises the over-used State-Market-Household triangle as a theoretical analytical tool, proposing its repositioning at the centre of Housing and Welfare Studies, and reopening the debate. It is shown that this tool does not remain useful for researchers alone but also as a means to a more effective communication of results to a wider non-specialist audience. Towards this goal two conceptual adaptations are proposed. Firstly, the addition of the time parameter in assessing the triangle’s transformations from one era to another, or comparing systems with similarities but on different evolutionary phases. Secondly, the – by default – understanding of the triangle as a dynamic configuration, due to inter and intra-polar shifts.

27.6.2014 | Panagiotis - Dimitrios Tsachageas, Mark Stephens | Volume: 1 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 63-69 | 10.13060/23362839.2014.1.2.116

The Development of New-Style Public Rental Housing in Shanghai

The Development of New-Style Public Rental Housing in Shanghai

This paper studies the roles of the new-style PRH (public rental housing) programme in Shanghai’s socio-spatial dynamics. It shows that the development of PRH in Shanghai is mainly a result of a deliberate urban development policy in line with other strategies such as city marketing and gentrification. The analysis is augmented with data from a questionnaire survey of PRH tenants in Shanghai. Finally, this paper identifies challenges for the future development of the public rental housing sector in China.

27.1.2014 | Jie Chen | Volume: 1 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 26-34 | 10.13060/23362839.2014.1.1.27

Subjective or objective? What matters?

Subjective or objective? What matters?

The aim of the paper is to discuss selected methodological problems of quantitative comparative housing research. The analysis is based on EU-SILC data and the concept of overcrowding is considered. We used two alternative definitions of overcrowding rate, both based on normative assumptions and each giving slightly different results. We tried to answer the question, which definition is better. The basic idea was that the closer the ‘objective’ rate of overcrowding is to its ‘subjective’ assessment, the better the selected method (definition) is. Moreover, it was shown that while in more advanced countries the share of households that consider dwelling space to be a problem is significantly higher than the share of households living in overcrowded dwellings based on ‘objective’ criteria, in post-socialist countries the opposite is true.

26.1.2014 | Petr Sunega | Volume: 1 | Issue: 1 | Pages: 35-43 | 10.13060/23362839.2014.1.1.28
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