Housing Tenure is Less Important Now for Distinguishing Between Social Classes "Does housing in general, and home ownership in particular, comprise anything more than just a class-related distributive outcome?" (Hamnett 1995:257) Hamnett posed this question in 1995 in his paper 'Home Ownership and the Middle Classes'. He went on to investigate possible answers in much the same way as I intend to discuss the contention that housing tenure is now less important for distinguishing between social classes than in the 1950s. Housing has always been of interest to geographers and sociologists alike, in their quest to determine social stratification and in their investigation into the various relationships between society and space. Indeed in the 1950s social theorists and policy analysts were mainly concerned with the reconstruction and repair of the post war society and the housing issues relating to that, in particular a desperate need and demand for an increased and improved council stock. However since then, and certainly in the latter half of the twentieth century, their focus has fallen much more on tenure, especially the continual rise of home ownership, its causes, its effects and specifically its relationship with class. In thins essay I will briefly give a description of housing tenure and an explanation of social classes (as seen from two view points) in order to set the scene. I then propose to paint a social picture of the 1950s and the ideas surrounding housing tenure and social classes at the time, and indeed their importance. In order to draw a comparison I will go on to give an account of present day theories ... ... middle of paper ... ...an Paul * Forrest, R., Murie, A. & Williams, P. (1990) Home Ownership: Differentiation and Fragmentation. London: Unwin * Hamnett, C. (1999) Winners and Losers: Home Ownership In Modern Britain London: UCL Press * Hamnett, C. (1995) Home Ownership and the Middle Classes, in Butler, T. & Savage, M. (eds) Social Change and the Middle Classes. London: UCL Press * Murie, A. (1991) Divisions of Home Ownership: Housing Tenure and Social Change, in Environment and Planning A, 23, pp 329-370 * Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) www.housing.odpm.gov.uk * Saunders, P. (1984) Beyond Housing Classes: The Sociological Significance of Private Property Rights in Means of Consumption, in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol 8, No 2, pp 202-227
Although Labour’s building programme compares poorly to previous governments, people are not too critical of them over this considering the level of house destruction during the War along with the lack of building materials, increase in marriage and “baby boom” after the War.
The United States’ government has always had a hand on our country’s housing market. From requiring land ownership to vote, to providing public housing to impoverished families, our government has become an irremovable part of the housing market. The effects of these housing policies can affect American residents in ways they might not even recognize. As several historians have concluded, many housing policies, especially those on public housing, either resulted in or reinforced the racial segregation of neighborhoods.
The lack of available social housing is mainly due to stock levels steadily diminishing each year since 1980, after tenants bought nearly half-a-million council houses under the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme. This coupled with the decline in house building; which is currently at its lowest level since 1946, has brought about a shameful lack of affordable public housing (Turffrey, 2010).
Weber, M. (1968) Status Groups & Classes, in G. Ross and C. Wittich (eds.) Economy and Society, Berkeley: University of California Press, (pp 302-307). Handbook SGY14, (2007/1). Social Sciences in Australia, Reading 5 (pp17-18). School of Arts, Media and Culture Faculty of Arts, Griffith University, Brisbane.
Kennedy A. (2014) Castle Vale Housing Action Trust: Lessons in Regenerating Communities Lecture, University of Birmingham.
Chicago was the best place to live and visit for anyone. Many people traveled from far places to visit and live in Chicago. Long after the World War II many things started reshaping America. One of the most significant was the racial change all over America but specifically in Chicago. Many southern blacks started to move into Chicago. Chicago started to become mostly dominated by blacks and other minorities while whites started to move into the suburbs of Chicago. "Beginning in the 1930s, with the city's black population increasing and whites fleeing to the suburbs, the black vote became a precious commodity to the white politicians seeking to maintain control" (Green, 117). Many of the mayors such as Edward J. Kelly, Martin H. Kennelly, and Richard J. Daley won over the blacks and got their votes for them to become mayor. The black population grew by 77 percent by the 1940. The white population dropped from 102,048 to 10,792 during the years of 1940 to 1960. With all of these people moving into Chicago there had to be more housing. There were many houses built to accommodate all the people. Martin H. Kennelly at one time wanted to tear down slums and have public housing built in the black ghetto. Many of the blacks wanted to escape these ghettos so some of them; if they could they would try to move to the white communities. When the blacks would try to move into the white communities they were met with mobs. There were many hurdles that blacks had to overcome not only in Chicago but all over America. The blacks of Chicago had to fight for a place to live and to find a mayor that would help them for who they are, not their color.
What is social class you ask? Social class is a system created to categorize people by education, wealth and heredity. What are the different class systems you ask? There are several class classifications and they’re Upper Class–Elite, Upper Middle Class, Lower Middle Class, Working Class and poor. In the united states and being a victim of “ social class categorizing” is an issue that must be addressed and people must be made aware, because it seems as if it’s not going anywhere anytime soon so the least we can do is try and make it fair as possible. Being defined unknowingly by a class system is one thing, but having no say so or fair opportunity at being placed in the best “class system” as those more fortunate than others needs to change because it’s not like we all came out of our mothers womb starting the race of life at the same starting and advantage point, and since we as Americans pride our-self on being the land of the free and equal opportunities I feel compelled to inform you of the unfairness of the issue and state ways to make it fair. In an article read while doing research this is how the author defined Social class “Classism is similar in many ways to racism, sexism, heterosexism and other forms of oppression. Classism appears individually through attitudes and behaviors, institutionally through policies and practices, and culturally through norms and values. Like other forms of oppression and prejudice, it is the tendency to make sweeping generalizations or stereotypes about people, such as “Poor people are lazy.”(Class Action) This essay will assess the determination of social classes in the United States and will seek to provide examples to demonstrate the inequalities and provide ways to improve them.
Stereotypes are like scalp dandruff, unnecessary, ugly, and hard to get rid of, unless you have the right shampoo. That shampoo could symbolize proper education or enlightenment for getting rid of that particular stereotype. Some stereotypes are so absurd we sometimes wonder where the heck did they even originate from. For example, Asians are bad drivers, or white people cannot dance. However there is a type of stereotype that has some little truth to it, but you find it is not the people who we are stereotyping’s fault. To be more specific, there is a stereotypical view that poor minorities are sometimes considered uneducated. This lack of minorities’ education is not their fault, but the fault of unlikely outside forces. Therefore there is some truth to this particular stereotype, but the minorities are not to blame for their lack of education. Few opportunities are given to them, starting with housing then leading to schools which would then affect their individual education.
This investigation is based on the assumption that gentrification with all its troubles can’t be prevented and is an inherent part of every city. What are the negative impacts of gentrification? What are the underlying mechanisms that feed these impacts? What drives these mechanisms? What would be an alternative scenario?
Ethics, according to the Oxford dictionary is “a set of moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity”. Ethics consists of doing what the law requires, following the standards of behavior our society accepts, and also has to do with what you believe is right or wrong. Rent control is not unethical, but is very controversial. If on one hand it is a good thing because it prevent landlord from being unethical charging the tenants unfair rent price, on the other hand it is unfair for the landlords to be imposed a rental price below market price which he/she is morally entitle to. Rent control can create several problems not only for the landlord but for the economy as well.
Legal segregation may have ended more than 50 years ago, but in many parts of the country Americans of different races are not neighbors. According to a recent State University of New York at Stony Brook census ranks Long Island as the third most racially segregated suburban region in the country, behind the suburbs of Newark and Cleveland. America learned a long time ago that separate is not equal. Racial uprising in U.S. cities in the late 1960s revealed what many blacks already knew, the country was moving toward two different society. One black and one white, separate and unequal.
Despite increased diversity across the country, America’s neighborhoods remain highly segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Residential segregation, particularly between African-Americans and whites, persists in metropolitan areas where minorities make up a large share of the population. This paper will examine residential segregation imposed upon African-Americans and the enormous costs it bears. Furthermore, the role of government will be discussed as having an important role in carrying out efforts towards residential desegregation. By developing an understanding of residential segregation and its destructive effects, parallels may be drawn between efforts aimed at combating such a grave societal problem and furthering social justice.
In modern society these 3 traditional social classifications, working, middle and upper class are outdated, fitting less than 40 percent of the United Kingdom's population. In April 2013 the British Broadcast Corporation introduced a new model for social classification, within the United Kingdom. Social class and socioeconomic groups traditionally have been defined by income, occupation and ed...
If you have ever read the book 1984 by George Orwell, then an interesting topic may have crossed your mind. The way the classes of people break down can be quite similar, and very different at times. In the United States, we have classes like the lower class, the working class, and the middle class. In 1984, there were such classes as the Proles, the Outer Party, and the Inner Party. The way the classes are broken down in 1984 reminds me a little bit of my old history class. When I studied medieval times and the classes back then were broken down into the nobles, the bourgeois, and the serfs.
It is perpetuated by the way wealth, power, and prestige are distributed and passed on from one generation to the next