56574286
The Precarity of Young People’s Housing Experiences in a Rural Context
ABSTRACT Young people’s housing, economic and labour market circumstances have become increasingly insecure due to the combined effects of the 2007/2008 economic crisis, neoliberal welfare reforms, rising costs of higher education and the shortage of affordable housing. Discussions of young peoples’ experiences in these domains have largely neglected their spatial variability but evidence suggests that young people living in rural parts of the UK have distinctive experiences of housing, which are closely connected to labour markets and educational opportunities. By drawing on qualitative data from young people and housing professionals, this article explores some of these rural distinctions and frames them within theoretical debates about the ‘precariat’. It argues for a more theoretically informed and geographically nuanced understanding of contemporary housing issues as rural youth potentially face greater precarity than their urban peers.
154772789
Private Renting After the Global Financial Crisis
Analyses of the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on housing have largely focused on subprime mortgages and homeownership. By contrast, the impact of the financial crisis on the private rented sector has received much less attention. This paper helps to address that gap by examining the impact of the GFC on private renting in Britain. In recent years, the private rented sector (PRS) in Britain has grown in size after many years of decline; and the formal rules and informal practices that characterize this tenure have also changed significantly. This transformation began during the 1990s but the pace of change increased from the turn of the century and accelerated still further during the GFC. Drawing on an historical institutional perspective, it shows that the changes to private renting over this period were shaped not only by domestic events but also by developments in the international political economy.
154022787
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-sequence analysis and cluster analysis of the British Household Panel Survey, contextualised by qualitative interviews with a large sample of young people. The authors describe how the interactions between the meanings, perceptions, and aspirations of young people, and the opportunities and constraints imposed by the drivers, are having a major impact on young people's housing pathways, resulting in considerable housing policy challenges, particularly in relation to the private rented sector.
145701630
Precarious lives, precarious labour: family support and young men's transitions to work in the UK
This research is about young people, family support and transitions into the workforce. We provide the results of a comparative, qualitative study with young men in two southern English towns. We argue that relationships of support in families are vital to young people's ability to ‘navigate’ precarious labour market opportunities. As Youth Studies has become increasingly preoccupied with individualism, we are compelled to draw attention to the collective support that is necessary to ‘launch’ the life trajectories of young people who are transitioning into an economic environment marked by insecurity and uncertainty. We conclude with recommendations for future research.
145626435
YOUTH TRANSITIONS: PATTERNS OF VULNERABILITY AND PROCESSES OF SOCIAL INCLUSION
processes of social inclusion and patterns of vulnerability. Drawing on a longitudinal survey of young adults currently aged 28/29, the report provides an assessment of the extent to which different groups of young people became active in shaping their post-school experiences and of the factors which limited or constrained their choices. The relationship between personal characteristics and labour market experiences are examined and an assessment is made of the ways in which young people adapt to the insecurities and uncertainties of modern labour markets.
147791405
Young Adults’ Pathways into Homeownership and the Negotiation of Intra-Family Support: A Home, the Ideal Gift
Emerging affordability problems in British housing have accentuated the role of parental support in facilitating entry to homeownership, with financial transfers and in-kind support smoothening transitions for many. This article explores housing trajectories, focusing on how dependency and autonomy are negotiated within and across generations in relation to gifts, loans and in-kind transfers for home purchase. It draws on the experiences of a group of young adults aged 25–35 and those family members who supported them in acquiring a home. We consider the nature of support, and how those giving and receiving it understand this exchange. We show that gifting for homeownership is an ‘ideal gift’, allowing givers to exercise moral control over the receivers by supporting a normalized tenure choice. Managing relationships of indebtedness between kin presupposes negotiations in which the maintenance of autonomy is paramount. The article examines four types of negotiations and their impact on intergenerational relations.
145417379
Younger Adults and Homeownership in Europe Through the Global Financial Crisis
In the context of poorly performing national economies and sustained employment insecurity since the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008, various UK and US studies have suggested that the transitions of younger people into independent living and into homeownership, in particular, have been in decline. Testing the wider validity of these findings for western European countries, this paper uses cross-sectional European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data to deconstruct to what extent and on which basis pre-crisis to post-crisis changes in the living arrangements of 18-34-year olds have varied across 15 European Union countries. Our results confirm a common trend towards diminishing access to homeownership, bringing about larger rental sectors in many countries. Yet, we are far from observing the rise of a ‘Generation Rent’, because the stronger transformation process is one towards a higher share of younger adults living in co-residence with their parents. Our empirical study further demonstrates that the directions of these shifts may vary strongly across countries, where the crisis has in some cases undermined existing residential patterns and forced realignment in the living arrangements among younger generations. Moreover, the study suggests that, although higher post-crisis declines in young-age homeownership is also associated with adverse labour market conditions, it seems to be primarily the volatility of more financialised housing markets that lead to increasing difficulties for younger people to realise housing property ownership.
30603202
Intergenerational support shaping residential trajectories: Young people leaving home in a gentrifying city
Parental support, in both financial and non-financial ways, is important in explaining the residential trajectories of young people leaving home. For instance, the influence of parental support on the ability to leave home or enter homeownership is well established. This study adds a dimension by investigating how inequalities in terms of parental background – particularly assets – are spatially articulated. More specifically, we study whether parental background influences the types of neighbourhoods young people leaving home move to. Drawing on the case of Amsterdam, we show that these ‘fledglings’, despite their generally very modest income, disproportionally move to gentrification neighbourhoods. Moreover, fledglings with wealthy parents are even more likely to move to both early gentrifying and expensive mature-gentrification neighbourhoods. Gentrification research should therefore also take into account the importance of middle class social reproduction strategies as well as the potential intergenerational transfer of (financial) resources – rather than merely personal financial situation – in shaping housing outcomes and spatial inequalities of young people leaving home. Drawing on parental support, young people may be able to outbid other households and hence exclude them from gentrifying neighbourhoods. Consequently, parental wealth and other resources can thus contribute to gentrification and exclusion.
148054122
‘Generation rent’ and the ability to ‘settle down’: economic and geographical variation in young people’s housing transitions
ABSTRACT The term ‘Generation Rent’ denotes young people who are increasingly living in the private rented sector for longer periods of their lives because they are unable to access homeownership or social housing. Drawing on qualitative data from two studies with young people and key-actors, this paper considers the phenomenon of ‘Generation Rent’ from the perspective of youth transitions and the concept of ‘home’. These frameworks posit that young people leaving the parental home traverse housing and labour markets until they reach a point of ‘settling down’. However, our data indicate that many young people face difficulties in this ‘settling’ process as they have to contend with insecure housing, unstable employment and welfare cuts which often force them to be flexible and mobile. This leaves many feeling frustrated as they struggle to remain fixed in place in order to ‘settle down’ and benefit from the positive qualities of home. Taking a Scottish focus, this paper further highlights the geographical dimension to these challenges and argues that those living in expensive and/or rural areas may find it particularly difficult to settle down.
166514405
Housebuilding in Britain's Countryside
New housing in the countryside perspectives on rural housing research rural planning and housing policy - a conflict of objectives rural housing opportunities, housing classes and status groups access to rural housing - empirical evidence the Lake District the local state options for intervention the central state - current concerns and future scenarios.
143286602
Fitting Homes? Young People's Housing and Household Strategies in Rural Scotland
Recent research on young people and housing has identified the strategies that young people have to employ in a housing market which does not cater for them. Young people's housing careers, their perceptions of the local rural housing market, and whether they consciously employ adaptive household strategies in order to be able to compete for housing are considered. A recent Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded study of young people in the Scottish Borders, comparing the housing careers of stayers with those of migrants away from the area, is discussed. The study involved a qualitative follow-up from a subset of the Scottish Young People's Survey, and this housing analysis is based on data from taped individual interviews with young people aged 22-23 years. The findings indicate that the current rural housing market discriminates particularly against women, and argue for more housing provision for single young people.
154272026
The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class
For the first time in history, the mainstream left has no progressive agenda. It has forgotten a basic principle. Every progressive political movement has been built on the anger, needs and aspirations of the emerging major class. Today that class is the precariat.
660975
Precarity of Place: a complement to the growing precariat literature
This article suggests that our current understandings of precarity are insufficient to describe the specific challenges of noncitizen living. It offers a counter concept that is related, but distinct from precarity: ‘precarity of place’. The term, far from being focused on the way precarity manifests itself in the workplace, instead focuses on the challenges of physical residence for migrants and the tightrope-like nature of migrant life. The article draws several parallels between the growing literature on what I call ‘labour precarity’ and ‘precarity of place’, including its origins in colonialism and neoliberalism, its nebulous class quality, and social movement responses. Drawing on examples from Burmese migrant populations in Thailand, the article posits that ‘precarity of place’ be considered in conjunction with, but separated from, our current understandings of (labour) precarity.
153877565
The social rented sector, housing and the welfare state in the UK
Abstract Recent discussions of the social rented sector in the UK have placed considerable emphasis on the restructuring and declining size of the tenure, privatisation, a shift from object to subject subsidies, residualisation and the increased significance of the poverty trap for tenants. Against this background, and in the light of the view that major public sector investment is unlikely in the future, the policy debate has shifted further towards concern with transfer of stock out of the public sector. This paper reviews key changes in the role of social rented sector housing and the background to these debates. It argues that it is important to relate the development of council housing to the wider structure of the welfare state; its position within the public sector; the changing structure of the private sector in housing; and the changing economic, social and demographic context. These aspects are of key importance to debates about residualisation and the future of the sector.
154876645
Young People, Homeownership and Future Welfare
Homeownership has become a ‘normalised’ tenure of choice in many advanced economies, with housing playing a pivotal role in shifts from collective to asset-based welfare. Young people are, however, increasingly being excluded from accessing the housing ladder. Many are remaining in the parental home for longer, and even when ready to ‘fly the nest’ face significant challenges in accessing mortgage finance. This under-30 age group has become ‘generation rent’. As this policy review emphasises, this key public-policy issue has created a source of inter-generational conflict between ‘housing poor’ young people and their ‘housing rich’ elders. To fully understand the complexities at play however, this paper argues that we need to look beyond the immediate housing-market issues and consider how housing policy interacts with broader social, economic and demographic shifts, and how it is intimately connected to debates about welfare. This is illustrated with reference to the UK, although these debates have international resonance.
141890992
Jilted Generation: How Britain Has Bankrupted Its Youth
Why are so many adult children living still living with mum and dad? Why do young people seem so disinterested in politics? And what are the hidden threats to Britain's long-term prosperity lurking in the next few decades? First published in 2010, Ed Howker and Shiv Mailk's Jilted Generation answers fundamental questions about the society you thought you knew. It identified, for the first time, the perilous position of Britain's young adults and, with a title brandished by everyone from Ed Miliband to student protesters, the book's thesis has formed a controversial but essential part of Britain's political debate. With significant additional material, this edition updates the argument and explains the real effects of austerity policies and the recession. And, crucially, it explains what must be done to protect a vital and underestimated national asset - Britain's newest adults.
154872006
Social Housing in England: Testing the Logics of Reform
The role and function of social housing in England are being recast. A radical programme of reform is being pursued in response to the apparent failure of the sector to serve as an effective welfare service, promoting dependency rather than social mobility. This paper examines the underlying logics and considers some of the potential consequences of this reform agenda, through an exploration of the relationship between social housing and worklessness. Drawing on evidence from qualitative interviews with over 150 tenants, questions are raised regarding the veracity of the charge sheet levelled against social housing. Risks associated with on-going efforts to reconstitute the role and function of social housing in England are also highlighted. These findings contribute to a growing body of evidence challenging the pathologising and problematising of social housing through the detailed analysis of the perspectives and experiences of social tenants.
156758948
Housing policy in the UK: the importance of spatial nuance
Abstract The UK has been engaged in an ongoing process of constitutional reform since the late 1990s, when devolved administrations were established in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. As devolution has evolved there has been a greater trend towards divergence in housing policy, which calls into question any notion of a ‘UK experience’. Whilst the 2014 Scottish independence referendum again returned constitutional reform high onto the political agenda, there still remain tensions between devolved governments and the UK Government in Westminster, with England increasingly becoming the outlier in policy terms. Informed by ideas of social constructionism, which emphasises the politics of housing, this paper draws on an analysis of policy narratives to highlight the need for greater geographical sensitivity. This requires not only more spatial nuance, but also a recognition that these differences are underpinned by divergent political narratives in different parts of the UK. This emphasis on the politics underpinning policy has relevance internationally in other geographical contexts.
146661997
Neoliberal Nomads: Housing Insecurity and the Revival of Private Renting in the UK
This paper offers a critical analysis, including insights from the fledgling sub-discipline of neurosociology, with the aim of challenging some of the key assumptions informing the state supported revival of the UK private rented sector (PRS) as a mainstream form of housing tenure. As is widely recognised, the PRS's expansion has occurred in tandem with the long running decline of social housing and the more recent reversal in the longstanding trend towards increasing owner occupation. This paper asserts that the policies supporting this overall trend are misconceived on a number of fronts, as the loosely regulated UK private rented sector is not only a major contributor to the country's ongoing housing crisis but carries with it a range of unacknowledged economic and social problems including profound effects on personal well-being, some fairly evident and others less so. With respect to the latter, it is argued that coming to an understanding of the negative implications of private renting in the UK under current arrangements, in addition to the more evident issues associated with poor condition and high cost accommodation, also requires an appreciation of the deeper psycho-social effects of involuntary mobility, insecurity and socio-spatial dislocation.
154281439
The Changing Route to Owner Occupation: The Impact of Student Debt
The 1990s saw a considerable fall in young adult homeownership rates in Britain. There is a concern that the future might hold further falls as a result of reforms to financing higher education. Using estimates from a housing tenure choice model, this paper conducts micro-simulation analyses to assess how this change could affect young adult homeownership transitions. The simulations reveal that increased student debt levels and the new repayment profile and their interaction with lender-imposed borrowing restrictions delay a first-time homeownership transition. The extent of the delay primarily depends upon the expected earnings profile, but lender criteria and general rises/falls in real house prices are also important. The analysis suggests that there will be much greater variation in the timing of house purchase between different groups of future graduates, brought about by increased graduate earnings heterogeneity, homeownership affordability schemes targeted toward specific types of households, and parental financial assistance.
2477625
Gender, Turning Points, and Boomerangs: Returning Home in Young Adulthood in Great Britain
The idea of a generation of young adults “boomeranging” back to the parental home has gained widespread currency in the British popular press. However, there is little empirical research identifying either increasing rates of returning home or the factors associated with this trend. This article addresses this gap in the literature using data from a long-running household panel survey to examine the occurrence and determinants of returning to the parental home. We take advantage of the longitudinal design of the British Household Panel Survey (1991–2008) and situate returning home in the context of other life-course transitions. We demonstrate how turning points in an individual’s life course—such as leaving full-time education, unemployment, or partnership dissolution—are key determinants of returning home. An increasingly unpredictable labor market means that employment cannot be taken for granted following university graduation, and returning home upon completion of higher education is becoming normative. We also find that gender moderates the relationship among partnership dissolution, parenthood, and returning to the parental home, reflecting the differential welfare support in Great Britain for single parents compared with nonresident fathers and childless young adults.
15693193
The increasing precariousness of the employment society: driving force for a new right wing populism?
The text deals with the relations between the precariousness of employment relations and right-wing populist orientations. On the basis of qualitative empirical material it sketches a right-wing populist system of axioms that - if it is consolidated - can also structure labour experiences. The article explains that these orientations can exist in all zones of the "employment society". In connection with this, it discusses the explanatory potential of different theoretical approaches. Key words: Precariousness, right wing populism, integration, employment society, everyday consciousness, political orientation, subjective interpretations Employment societies of the Western European "atlantic" or "co-operative" capitalisms have been undergoing transformation. They face a phenomenon well-known to the more market-driven "un-coordinated" Anglo-Saxon forms of capitalism: the increase in insecure, unprotected modes of employment which do not guarantee long-term wellbeing. Social scientists like Robert Castel (2005: 54ff.) speak of the "return of insecurity" in rich Western societies. Although "these societies enjoy the protection of security systems" the fear of "insecurity is omnipresent" (ibid.: 8). This increasing insecurity is provoked by fault lines in the labour market. The link between wage earning employment and strong social rights is being eroded. Due to a flexible working regime and the weakening of collective regulation, current "financial market capitalism" (Windolf 2005) represents the recommodification of labour (Castel 2000; Hyman 2001; Dorre et al. 2005). This is taking place in different countries at different times; "institutional filters" of national capitalisms influence it, but cannot stop it. Post-Fordist employment societies are divided into three "zones". The "zone of disaffiliation", relatively small in Germany, contains the long-term unemployed. The regularly, full-time employed belong to the "zone of integration". Above 60 % of all German employees are located in this zone (Brinkmann et al. 2006). In between is a growing "zone of precariousness", with heterogeneous employment modes like temporary work, fixed-term contract work, forced part-time work, little jobs, badly paid jobs, state-subsidised jobs ("one-euro-jobs") and unpaid practical trainees. These jobs do not provide long term security, and are precarious. This hypothesis has been developed by Robert Castel in "Transformation of the Social Question", based on French society, He probed the influence of precariousness on political attitudes. The "return of insecurity" is a driving force for a "Poujadist reaction", a model of right-wing populism based on rivalry between those faced with exclusion from the labour market, fuelled by resentment: "It is a reaction of groups located at the lower end of the social ladder who are in a situation of deprivation and who are competing with other equally or even more deprived members of society... They search for reasons to understand their situation and pretend to be superior with the help of xenophobia and racist discrimination" (Castel 2005: 73f). Castel has provoked debate. In our recent study we applied these hypotheses to Germany, and saw the effects of precariousness on the quality of integration. We identified modes of dealing with precariousness politically, and possible transitions towards right-wing populist orientations. Current right-wing populism manifests itself in the every-day-consciousness of employees. Precariousness furnishes the "raw material", enabling political reaction to be synthesised into right-wing populist orientations. Contrary to conventional questionnaire-based research, identifying continuities and developments of right-wing extremist potentials using approved questioning strategies, we assumed complex interrelated processes, for which appropriate empirical indicators are still to be developed. Contemporary right-wing populism is a politically virulent anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian current. …
46173930
A Place and Space for a Critical Geography of Precarity
This article explores growing interest in the term ‘precarity’ within the social sciences and asks whether there is a place for a ‘critical geography of precarity’ amid this emerging field. Referring to life worlds characterised by uncertainty and insecurity, the term precarity is double-edged as it implies both a condition and a possible rallying point for resistance. Such areas should be of concern and interest to human geography yet engagement with the concept in the discipline thus far has not been widespread. This article covers four key aims. First, it reviews where the concept of precarity has made an appearance in work by geographers and in allied disciplines and relates this to the more sustained usage in European social science. Second, an attempt is made to clarify the meaning of the term and elucidate more precisely what it refers to. Third, the term precarity is explored alongside related concepts of risk and vulnerability and questions are asked about the conceptual distinctiveness of the term precarity. Finally, an argument is made for a potential critical geography of precarity through looking at the situation of migrant labourers working in low-paid sectors of the UK economy; individuals who may find themselves at the forefront of precariousness due to their labour conditions.
113447162
The Exercise of Power to Limit the Development of New Housing in the English Countryside
The author argues that power is being exercised by rural elites to prevent much-needed new housing being built in the English countryside. Evidence is presented from five case-study local authorities in rural England, via analysis of interview data and policy documents produced at the regional and local plan-making level. Technocratic explanations for the ongoing failure of the planning system to deliver more housing in line with the well-established need/demand for such are rejected. Drawing on the three dimensions of power presented by Lukes, the author explores how the exercise of power effectively subverts planning processes and leads overwhelmingly to decisions being made which favour the exclusionary preferences of certain groups.
153562850
Interconnecting housing, homelessness and rurality: evidence from local authority homelessness officers in England and Wales
This paper investigates the discursive and practical policy issues relating to homelessness in rural areas of England and Wales. It begins with the argument that such homelessness does represent a significant but under-emphasised problem in rural areas. Official government counting of rural homelessness itself underestimates the scale of the problem, but provides a starting point for an understanding of more hidden forms of homelessness. We suggest a number of ways in which rural homelessness is less visible than its well-publicised urban counterpart, relating to the morphology of rural areas, social-cultural constructs of idyll-ic rural living, and conceptual assumptions which render homelessness as out-of-place in purified rural spaces. We then report on findings from a survey of local authority homelessness officers in England and Wales and in-depth interviews with officers in the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire. Seeing the issues through the eyes of these practitioners clarifies a number of strands of the invisibility of rural homelessness, and points to very significant interconnections between ‘housing’ and ‘homelessness’ discourses in the local rural policy process.
144049332
Out-migration from rural Scotland: The importance of family and social networks
Out-Migration from Rural Scotland: The Importance of Family and Social Networks Out-migration from Rural Scotland: The importance of family and social networks The decision-making processes involved at various stages in the out-migration of individuals from remote parts of rural Scotland are examined. Some two hundred migrants, now residing throughout the United Kingdom, were traced using a variety of means. Quantitative and qualitative research methods were incorporated so that the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches complement and counterbalance each other. The investigation focuses on the changing role of family and other networks at each stage. It is found that there is a general expectation and acceptance of the need for young adults to leave rural areas. Initially, individual migrants benefit from the role of immediate or extended family and social networks, although the individual is not always conscious of their role. With time away from the home area these networks decline in importance, only to re-emerge later in life. At this stage the individual is more likely to be a benefactor than a beneficiary in the process.
145440737
Young People and Social Exclusion in Rural Areas
The concept of social exclusion may be used to connect the experiences of individuals and social groups to broader social and economic processes (linking ‘biography’ to ‘history’). This paper draws on recent empirical studies of young people in rural areas of Britain and other European countries to illustrate how social exclusion may operate in rural areas, particularly in the transition from education to employment.
14587527
Place effects on health: how can we conceptualise, operationalise and measure them?
In this paper we highlight what we consider to be a lack of adequate conceptualisation. operationalisation and measurement of "place effects". We briefly review recent historical trends in the study of the effects of place on health in industrial countries, and argue that "place effects" often appear to have the status of a residual category, an unspecified black box of somewhat mystical influences on health which remain after investigators have controlled for a range of individual and place characteristics. We note that the distinction between "composition" and "context" may be more apparent than real, and that features of both material infrastructure and collective social functioning may influence health. We suggest using a framework of universal human needs as a basis for thinking about how places may influence health, and recommend the testing of hypotheses about specific chains of causation that might link place of residence with health outcomes.
142264655
Constructing Grounded Theory
An Invitation to Grounded Theory Gathering Rich Data Crafting and Conducting Intensive Interviews Interviewing in Grounded Theory Studies The Logic of Grounded Theory Coding Practices and Initial Coding Focused Coding and beyond Memo-Writing Theoretical Sampling, Saturation and Sorting Reconstructing Theory in Grounded Theory Studies Symbolic Interactionism and Grounded Theory Writing the Draft Reflecting on the Research Process
152954914
Exploring the contribution of rural enterprises to local resilience
Abstract The economic importance of the private sector, such as the contribution of businesses to Gross Domestic Product or to employment creation, is well recognised in research and policy. In the context of significant economic, social and environmental changes such as the economic downturn, public spending cuts, an ageing population and climate change, the broader social and environmental contributions of the private sector to local resilience have begun to be recognised by researchers and policy-makers. However, we lack a detailed understanding of the nature of, and motivations for, these different contributions. This paper discusses the findings of a case study in South Australia which aimed to enhance our understanding of the role of private sector enterprises in local development and resilience. In particular, this article explores What, How and Why questions: What are the economic and social contributions of rural businesses to local resilience?, How are these contributions made? and Why do business owners make these contributions? The findings reveal that rural businesses contribute to local resilience in both direct and indirect ways. Direct contributions include, for example, the creation of local employment and local product and service delivery. Indirect contributions can be understood as the knock-on effect or added value of primary business activities. For example, the provision of employment opportunities helps to reduce the risk of out-migration and depopulation. With reference to the concept of embeddedness, the study demonstrates the importance of the rural context in shaping the behaviour of rural business owners and encouraging them to operate in economically, socially and environmentally responsible ways. However, this is not a passive relationship; rural business owners have the motivation and resources to respond to specific local challenges, opportunities and characteristics, and to proactively and skilfully turn them into entrepreneurial opportunities. As such, they become part of the adaptation process, acting as agents of change in supporting rural resilience. This adaptation process contributes to enhanced community resilience which enables the modification of existing structures and the seeking of solutions to economic, social and environmental challenges.
2836077
The Social Value of Second Homes in Rural Communities
Abstract Analyses of the impacts of second home ownership in rural areas, around the world, regularly align with a “loss of community” thesis, linking second homes to a range of negative socio-economic consequences. This article looks again at the second home issue, developing a perspective that attributes a particular social value to temporary and seasonal rural residence. It proposes a framework for thinking about this phenomenon that brings together writings on the nature of place dwelling with ideas of social capital accumulation, and the potential interconnectors that temporary residents provide between the otherwise closed (or more limited) social networks of some rural communities and wider socio-economic and professional worlds. It argues that second homes may give communities a potential store of “bridging” social capital. Moreover, it proposes that second homes have a clear social value within rural community structures, and aims to open a research agenda and debate around the measurement and likely extent of this value.
156611759
Youth Transitions, Precarity and Inequality and the Future of Social Policy in Europe
The chapters in this book present research conducted during the current European economic crisis and offer a timely contribution to the analysis of the conditions facing young people in Europe. The emerging risks have to be understood, as we argued in Chapter 1, not only as an effect of the economic crisis but also as a consequence of longer-term patterns in youth transitions. Furthermore, as we pointed out in Chapter 1, a consensus is emerging on the detrimental combined effects of the economic crisis and of European austerity on youth transitions. For the most part, analyses of the effects of risk on young people’s lives in this new policy environment have been confined to youth studies, and social policy theory has important insights to offer to this debate. Drawing on new research by social policy scholars, this book shed light on the nature of inequality affecting young people and the relevance of welfare structures in mitigating contemporary risks. In particular, this book has offered both a major contribution to understanding risk and precarity facing young people in the crisis (in the contributions of Part I) and to analysing social policies and welfare mixes (in the contributions of Part II). Making sense of contemporary youth transitions requires efforts to describe both the evolution of individual experiences and an explanation of how these experiences are shaped by structural factors.
141755137
Young People and Housing : Transitions, Trajectories and Generational Fractures
Chapter 1 Making Sense of the Housing Trajectories of Young People Ray Forrest Part 1 The Family, Demography and the Transition to Adulthood Chapter 2 Balancing Autonomy, Status and Family in the Transition to Adulthood: Class and Housing Aspects of the Southern European Model in Athens, 1987-2004 Dimitris Emmanuel Chapter 3 The First Steps into the Italian Housing System: Inequality between Generational Gaps and Family Intergenerational Transfers Teresio Poggio Chapter 4 The Housing Transitions of Young People in Australia: Change, Continuity and Challenge Andrew Beer and Debbie Faulkner Chapter 5 The Living Arrangements of Just Married Adults in Taiwan William Li Part 2 Housing Affordability and Youth Housing Trajectories Chapter 6 Youth Housing and Exclusion in Sweden Mats Lieberg Chapter 7 Homeownership, Cohort Trajectories and Hong Kong's Post-80 Generation Ngai-ming Yip Chapter 8 Youth Housing Problems in China Yapeng Zhu Part 3 Economic Change and Generational Fractures Chapter 9 Housing and Generational Fractures in Japan Yosuke Hirayama Chapter 10 Residential Trajectories of Young French People : The French Generational Gap Fanny Bugeja Chapter 11 Young People's Trajectories through Irish Housing Booms and Busts: Headship, Housing and Labour Market access among the under 30s since the Late 1960s Michelle Norris and Nessa Winston Chapter 12 The Lived Experience of Housing among Young People in Russia Jane Zavisca
155160691
How do rural areas profile in the futures dreams by the Finnish youth
Abstract Demographic trends do not give much hope for rural regions in developed economies. Many studies prescribe rural futures as manifestations of consumption of the countryside by an urban majority. However, many of these macro-images and typologies lack explicit micro-agency. This article illustrates what are the expectations from personal futures in rural areas, where specifically and by whom. The respondents of a national survey represented the Finnish youth, who described their dream future in 2030 in terms of livelihood, accommodation and lifestyle recipe. Analysis of the dreams resulted in distinct regional profiles. Urban-adjacent rural areas are profiled as places for a cosy life with spacious housing, home-based activities, nature, privacy and commuting. Rural centres (villages and parishes) had a comparative advantage in small-scale life. The advantage is related to benefits of smallness and economies of proximity: communality, safety and societal involvement. Self-made life attracted the youth to remote rural areas along with opportunities for entrepreneurship, pluriactivity and nature-related activities. Those of rural origin and a higher age increased the probability of rural destinations in the dreams. The effectiveness of rural, regional and municipal development policy could potentially benefit significantly by providing direct responses to the dreams of the youth, based on the research contributions which profile regions for the future at this level of abstraction.
154942976
‘Reaching the Parts Other Grants Don't Go?’ Supporting Self-provided Housing in Rural Scotland
Ensuring that rural areas of the UK have sufficient affordable houses in reasonable condition has long challenged policy makers. Previous research shows that rural housing has demand characteristics and faces supply constraints that have proven difficult to balance. The paper reports on the reasons why an innovative subsidy has achieved some success in overcoming barriers to provision in rural Scotland. It is argued that the subsidy has boosted effective demand and tackled a major supply constraint, namely land availability. Empirical material is drawn from a systematic evaluation of the mechanism. The paper concludes with reflections on its implications for the wider literature and for rural housing provision in the evolving financial and political context.
153033414
Legitimising the Laird? Communicative Action and the role of private landowner and community engagement in rural sustainability
Privately-owned estates dominate Scotland's uplands, and their owners' decisions greatly influence rural communities. The research reported here, involving in-depth case studies of six upland, private estates, aimed to investigate the dynamic relationships between landowners and rural communities, considering the influence of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. The research questions were explored through interviews with key actors (in the local community and in estate management) and participant observation. Evaluation of current and potential landowner/estate-community partnership-working illustrates the opportunities for mutual benefits, and the need for greater community empowerment to ensure partnership success. These findings are interpreted from a Habermasian perspective, reiterating the apparently insurmountable challenge of power inequalities in the public sphere. Nonetheless, in order to pursue a democratic discourse, private landowners and ‘estate communities’ are recommended to adopt principles of Communicative Action (where mutual understanding is supported through the creation of an ‘ideal speech situation’), to contribute positively to ‘estate community’ sustainability, and subsequently, to private estate sustainability and public legitimacy. This research is highly policy relevant in Scotland during a period of review of land reform legislation. The conclusions have international significance in terms of understanding power relations in rural contexts and identifying opportunities for community empowerment. Finally, outcomes for the practice of communication in the context of Scottish private estates are considered, as well as wider theoretical applications in the era of ‘post-participation’, not least the importance of maintaining the ‘public sphere’, seeking to reduce inequalities and maximise trust.