Repackaging the Poor? Conceptualizing Neoliberal Reforms of Social Rental Housing

Anita Blessing

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    28 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper considers the need for conceptual renewal in comparative
    housing research. Since the mid-1990s, Kemeny’s model of ‘unitary’
    and ‘dualist’ rental markets and Harloe’s classification of ‘mass’ and
    ‘residual’ social housing provision have been repeatedly recycled in
    comparative studies of ‘social’ and ‘public’ housing provision. Amidst
    international neoliberal policy mobilities, their models based on
    liberal welfare regimes wield particular power. Conceived during
    neoliberal cutbacks of public services, Kemeny’s ‘dualist’ rental market
    and Harloe’s ‘residual’ model of social housing similarly depict statesubsidised
    rental housing provision as bureaucratic, and targeted to
    the poor. Despite empirical change, these models are still used to
    describe liberal welfare regimes, and to theorise international policy
    convergence. Based on a review of recent market-oriented reforms
    of state-subsidised rental housing provision in the US, Australia and
    England; original neoliberal ‘sites of production’, this contribution asks
    whether these conceptual models still reflect the empirics. Findings
    diverge from the models, undermining their assumptions about how
    neoliberal reforms progress.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)149-172
    JournalHousing Studies
    Volume31
    Issue number2
    Early online date11 Sept 2015
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Keywords

    • comparative housing
    • housing policy
    • affordable rental housing
    • concept development

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