Housing: Commodity versus Right

TLDR

Housing research has long been a sociological focus, yet since the 1960s it has become fragmented across subfields, and the 2008 financial crisis highlighted a debate between viewing housing as a commodity versus a right. The paper aims to organize housing scholarship into commodity and right perspectives using the 2008 crisis as a framework. The author reviews literature on mortgage financing, property values, wealth, affordable rental housing, foreclosures, evictions, and examines theoretical arguments and activist research on housing as a right. The study concludes that focusing on the actual home or apartment offers a productive avenue for future sociological analysis.

Abstract

The study of housing has a long history in sociology, but since the 1960s, it has been relatively hidden in a number of sociological subfields and scattered across a range of disciplines. The financial crisis of 2008 elevated housing issues to the level of national and international debate and protest, and it offers a framework for organizing the scholarship on housing into that which studies housing as a commodity, on one hand, and as a right, on the other. In the former category, I review the literature on mortgage financing; property values and wealth; and affordable rental housing, foreclosures, and evictions. In the latter category, I discuss the theoretical arguments for a right to housing and review the research on activist demands for that right. The tension between these two aspects of housing is discussed throughout. I conclude by proposing the actual home or apartment as a productive area for new sociological analysis.