Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HOU-DUAL (HOUSING DUALIZATION: DIVIDED HOUSING CAREERS AND THE FINANCIALIZATION OF HOUSING MARKETS)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2017-05-23 do 2019-05-22
On a global level, processes of so-called ‘financialization’ have been at forefront of housing market transformation. While a broad concept, financialization describes real forces that have progressively changed the nature of housing, through integration with global flows of capital, neoliberal re/deregulation and the increasing commodification of housing: changes that may exacerbate the translation of labour market to housing divides. All this, in an era where labour inequalities have increased and housing has only grown in importance in the face of welfare cutbacks and shifts towards ‘asset-based welfare.’ Housing matters: being crucial to the attainment of independence, wellbeing, decisions of family formation, and increasingly towards household economic security - as a resource over the life-course in times of need. Housing dynamics further structure societies in essential ways, whether affecting patterns of family formation and fertility or reproducing stratification across generations. Given differentiated homeownership entry, diverging outcomes on the property market, and intergenerational transmission, housing assets are clearly central to shaping inequalities. Financialization forces - albeit varied across contexts - have seemingly only amplified the importance of housing.
The project, entitled Housing Dualization: Divided Housing Careers and the Financialization of Housing Markets (HOU-DUAL), set out to tackles these issues, with the objective of developing a theoretical and empirical understanding of how European housing markets are increasingly structured by insider and outsider dynamics - or housing dualization - in the face of both rising labour market inequalities and housing market financialization. The project presented a critical investigation into dynamics of rising labour and housing inequalities, with fundamental implications for science, society and policy. The researcher, bringing a strong previous experience in housing inequality research, was embedded among key scholars in the field of housing market financialization at KU Leuven, led by Prof. Manual Aalbers.
The project was terminated early within the first year due to professional circumstances that could not be postponed. As such, the project work was only able to be carried out during a constrained period resulting in more limited output in the face of its early termination. Nonetheless, in the relatively short period previous to the termination of the grant, important work was undertaken in the project in meeting initial objectives, as outlined below.
The project, entitled Housing Dualization: Divided Housing Careers and the Financialization of Housing Markets (HOU-DUAL), set out to tackles these issues, with the objective of developing a theoretical and empirical understanding of how European housing markets are increasingly structured by insider and outsider dynamics - or housing dualization - in the face of both rising labour market inequalities and housing market financialization. The project presented a critical investigation into dynamics of rising labour and housing inequalities, with fundamental implications for science, society and policy. The researcher, bringing a strong previous experience in housing inequality research, was embedded among key scholars in the field of housing market financialization at KU Leuven, led by Prof. Manual Aalbers.
The project was terminated early within the first year due to professional circumstances that could not be postponed. As such, the project work was only able to be carried out during a constrained period resulting in more limited output in the face of its early termination. Nonetheless, in the relatively short period previous to the termination of the grant, important work was undertaken in the project in meeting initial objectives, as outlined below.
During the period of the research grant before its early termination, important work was carried out towards meeting the project objectives.
Two significant working papers represent current publication output (see links in publication section). At the moment of writing, these are both under review to be published in high-ranking international journals within the fields of geography and housing studies, alongside a third article still currently in progress. The first publication – currently accepted with revisions in a high-ranked international journal - represents a key output tackling the central concept of housing dualization at the root of the research project. It introduces the conceptualization of housing market dualization and outlines how insider-outsider divides in labour markets, as characterized in the field of labour market dualization, are translated to analogous divides across housing market dimensions. Through an examination of the case of The Netherlands, it further presents empirical evidence on the direct translation of labour to housing market dualization revealing clear trends towards increasing divides and growing shares of compounded labour and housing market exclusion. The second publication presents an important theoretical argument on how contemporary transformations in housing markets have undermined fundamental homeownership ideologies. The paper challenges entrenched ideologies portraying homeownership as ‘widespread,’ ‘equalizing,’ and ‘secure’, through long-term empirical evidence from the UK, US, and Australia – classic ‘homeowner society’ contexts where such tenets have been particularly embedded. Additionally, a third article is currently still in development, tacklinnng the current ambiguity in defining and measuring processes of financialization in housing markets, outlining a clear definition of housing financialization and presenting an overview of operationalization measures of financialization across key housing dimensions.
During the period, participation at three major conferences was undertaken representing important moments of dissemination and engagement with the academic community. The researcher participated in the following conferences: the 2017 annual EUGEO Conference (European Association of Geographical Societies) in Brussels, the 2017 RC43 Housing and the Built Environment Conference in Hong Kong and the 2018 annual AAG Conference in New Orleans. The researcher was involved in sessions organized by the host REFCOM research group on key themes related to financialization and housing inequality which involved eminent scholars working on related research.
Additionally, the researcher was involved in helping organize and participate in a 3-day International Conference on “The Real Estate/Financial Complex” hosted at KU Leuven in September 2017. This represented a further important moment for dissemination and engagement with a wider academic network. Moreover, the researcher was involved in co-organizing, together with housing researchers at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Granada, an international workshop for the ENHR’s (European Network of Housing Researchers) Working Group on Homeownership and Globalization in Granada in May 2017.
Structured meetings and discussions with the broader host research institute throughout the project period fostered meaningful two-way transfers of knowledge between the researcher and the host group. This was bolstered by further engagement through the above-mentioned conferences and workshop with a wider academic network in related fields. Together, this allowed fruitful interdisciplinary exchanges especially between the fields of housing studies and financialization research.
Two significant working papers represent current publication output (see links in publication section). At the moment of writing, these are both under review to be published in high-ranking international journals within the fields of geography and housing studies, alongside a third article still currently in progress. The first publication – currently accepted with revisions in a high-ranked international journal - represents a key output tackling the central concept of housing dualization at the root of the research project. It introduces the conceptualization of housing market dualization and outlines how insider-outsider divides in labour markets, as characterized in the field of labour market dualization, are translated to analogous divides across housing market dimensions. Through an examination of the case of The Netherlands, it further presents empirical evidence on the direct translation of labour to housing market dualization revealing clear trends towards increasing divides and growing shares of compounded labour and housing market exclusion. The second publication presents an important theoretical argument on how contemporary transformations in housing markets have undermined fundamental homeownership ideologies. The paper challenges entrenched ideologies portraying homeownership as ‘widespread,’ ‘equalizing,’ and ‘secure’, through long-term empirical evidence from the UK, US, and Australia – classic ‘homeowner society’ contexts where such tenets have been particularly embedded. Additionally, a third article is currently still in development, tacklinnng the current ambiguity in defining and measuring processes of financialization in housing markets, outlining a clear definition of housing financialization and presenting an overview of operationalization measures of financialization across key housing dimensions.
During the period, participation at three major conferences was undertaken representing important moments of dissemination and engagement with the academic community. The researcher participated in the following conferences: the 2017 annual EUGEO Conference (European Association of Geographical Societies) in Brussels, the 2017 RC43 Housing and the Built Environment Conference in Hong Kong and the 2018 annual AAG Conference in New Orleans. The researcher was involved in sessions organized by the host REFCOM research group on key themes related to financialization and housing inequality which involved eminent scholars working on related research.
Additionally, the researcher was involved in helping organize and participate in a 3-day International Conference on “The Real Estate/Financial Complex” hosted at KU Leuven in September 2017. This represented a further important moment for dissemination and engagement with a wider academic network. Moreover, the researcher was involved in co-organizing, together with housing researchers at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Granada, an international workshop for the ENHR’s (European Network of Housing Researchers) Working Group on Homeownership and Globalization in Granada in May 2017.
Structured meetings and discussions with the broader host research institute throughout the project period fostered meaningful two-way transfers of knowledge between the researcher and the host group. This was bolstered by further engagement through the above-mentioned conferences and workshop with a wider academic network in related fields. Together, this allowed fruitful interdisciplinary exchanges especially between the fields of housing studies and financialization research.
As mentioned above, the project faced a necessary early termination and therefore the work was only carried out for a relatively short period. Despite this, several important outputs are still in progress. The two working paper publications outlined above are currently under review and should be published in the near future as articles in high-ranked international journals. Additionally, the third article co-authored with the supervisor is ongoing and intends to be completed for publication over the coming year.
On top of direct publication output, the broader network opportunities that the initial period of the project enabled have resulted in ongoing collaborations with international researchers working in related fields of housing and financialization across Belgium, France, Brazil, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia, US and UK. This of course includes ongoing direct collaboration with Prof. Manuel Aalbers and associated researchers at the host institute at KU Leuven.
On top of direct publication output, the broader network opportunities that the initial period of the project enabled have resulted in ongoing collaborations with international researchers working in related fields of housing and financialization across Belgium, France, Brazil, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia, US and UK. This of course includes ongoing direct collaboration with Prof. Manuel Aalbers and associated researchers at the host institute at KU Leuven.