Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Class, Ethnicity and State in the Polarized Metropolis pp 187–212Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Housing, Ethnicity and Advanced Marginality in England

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Abstract

This chapter argues that two key, overlapping, fields of political and public discourse have tended to obfuscate the shared social reality of urban marginality in England in recent years: housing and migration. We suggest that the noisy public space of “race talk” and heightened anxieties over migration serve to obscure the socio-spatial reshaping of urban housing systems and deflect attention from the policy moves and longer-term processes that produce insecurity and precarity at the bottom of the class structure, regardless of race or ethnicity. We argue for the preeminence of social class as an explanation socio-spatial reshaping of urban systems in England and suggest that the specificity and complexity of national housing systems is a neglected aspect in the understanding of advanced urban marginality.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Our focus here is on England as housing policy is a devolved matter in the UK. However, some historical policies are UK-wide and we therefore refer to the UK government and policy in places.

References

  • Aalbers, M. (2016). The financialization of housing. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, C. (2008). Housing market renewal and social class. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Amin, A. (2007). Local community on trial. Economy and Society, 34(4), 612–633.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, R., & Blandy, S. (2016). Domestic fortress. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beatty, C., Cole, I., Powell, R., & Sanderson, E. (2014). Monitoring the impact of recent measures affecting housing benefit and local housing allowances in the private rented sector: The response of landlords (Research Report No. 870). Department for Work and Pensions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beatty, C., & Fothergill, S. (2013). Hitting the poorest places hardest. Sheffield: SHU.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burrows, R., Ford, J., & Wilcox, S. (2000). Housing finance review 2000/2001. York: JRF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, I., & Furbey, R. (1994). The eclipse of council housing. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, I., Powell, R., & Sanderson, E. (2016). Putting the squeeze on “generation rent”: Housing benefit claimants in the private rented sector—Transitions, marginality and stigmatisation. Sociological Research Online, 21(2), 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Copley, T. (2014). From right to buy to buy to let. Greater London Authority/London Assembly Labour.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, J., & McKee, K. (2018). Hysteresis: Understanding the housing aspirations gap. Sociology, 52(1), 182–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crook, T., & Kemp, P. A. (2011). Transforming private landlords. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Datta, K., McIlwaine, C., Evans, Y., Herbert, J., May, J., & Wills, J. (2006). Work and survival strategies among low-paid migrants in London. London: Department of Geography, Queen Mary, University of London.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Swaan, A. (1997). Widening circles of disidentification: On the psycho-and sociogenesis of the hatred of distant strangers-reflections on Rwanda. Theory, Culture & Society, 14(2), 105–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dench, S., Hurstfield, J., Hill, D., & Akroyd, K. (2006). Employers’ use of migrant labour. 04/06. London: Home Office.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department for Communities and Local Government. (2017). Rough sleeping statistics autumn 2016, England. London: DCLG.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government. (2018). Trends in tenure, 25–34 year olds, England. Retrieved from http://opendatacommunities.org/data/housing-market/percentage-occupation-25-34-yr-olds/tenure-percentage-occupation-25-34-yr-olds

  • Desmond, M. (2016). Evicted. Allen Lane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elias, N. (1987). The retreat of sociologists into the present. Theory, Culture and Society, 4(1), 223–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finney, N., & Simpson, L. (2009). ‘Sleepwalking to segregation’? Challenging myths about race and migration. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, S., Pawson, H., Bramley, G., Wilcox, S., & Watts, B. (2015). The homelessness monitor. London: Crisis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldberg, D. (2009). The threat of race. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gough, J. (2017). Brexit, xenophobia and left strategy now. Capital & Class, 41(2), 366–372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoolachan, J., McKee, K., Moore, T., & Soaita, A. (2017). “Generation rent” and the ability to “settle down”: Economic and geographical variation in young people’s housing transitions. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(1), 63–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, K., & Manzi, T. (2013a). New localism, old retrenchment: The “big society”, housing policy and the politics of welfare reform. Housing, Theory and Society, 30(1), 29–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, K., & Manzi, T. (2013b). Modernisation, marketisation and housing reform: The use of evidence based policy as a rationality discourse. People, Place and Policy Online, 7, 1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, R., Forrest, J., & Poulsen, M. (2002). Are there ethnic enclaves/ghettos in English cities? Urban Studies, 39(4), 591–618.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, C., & Murie, A. (2006). The right to buy: Analysis and evaluation of a housing policy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, P. A. (2015). Private renting after the global financial crisis. Housing Studies, 30(4), 601–620.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • KPMG/Shelter. (2014). Building the homes we need. London: KPMG.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kundnani, A. (2001). From Oldham to Bradford: The violence of the violated. Race and Class, 43(2), 105–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Law, A., & Mooney, G. (2012). The decivilizing process and urban working-class youth in Scotland. Social Justice, 38(4), 106–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madden, D., & Marcuse, P. (2016). In defense of housing. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malpass, P., & Murie, A. (1994). Housing policy and practice. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKee, K. (2012). Young people, homeownership and future welfare. Housing Studies, 27(6), 853–862.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNaughton, C. (2008). Homelessness among A8 Nationals in the UK. Paper presented at the Housing Studies Association Annual Conference, 2–4 April 2008, University of York, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, K., & Williamson, P. (2001). Race talk: The perpetuation of racism through private discourse. Race and Society, 4(1), 3–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neal, S., Bennett, K., Cochrane, A., & Mohan, G. (2013). Living multiculture: Understanding the new spatial and social relations of ethnicity and multiculture in England. Environment and Planning C, 31(2), 308–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Netto, G., Sosenko, F., & Bramley, G. (2011). A review of poverty and ethnicity in Scotland. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paton, K., & Cooper, V. (2016). It’s the state, stupid: 21st gentrification and state-led evictions. Sociological Research Online, 21(3), 1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peach, C. (2009). Slippery segregation: Discovering or manufacturing ghettos? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35(9), 1381–1395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillimore, J., Goodson, L., & Thornhill, J. (2008). Migrants from A8 countries and housing in the East Midlands. Derby: Decent and Safe Homes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D. (2005). Housing achievements, diversity and constraints. In M. Harrison, D. Phillips, K. Chahal, L. Hunt, & J. Perry (Eds.), Housing, ‘race’ and community cohesion. Coventry: CIH.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D. (2006a). Parallel lives? Challenging discourses of British Muslim self-segregation. Environment and Planning D, 24(1), 25–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D. (2006b). Moving towards integration: The housing of asylum seekers and refugees in Britain. Housing Studies, 21(4), 539–553.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, D. (2015). Race, community and ongoing conflict. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38(3), 391–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, T. (2007). Speech to the LGA/European year of equal opportunities for all. Retrieved from www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/newsandcomment/speeches/Pages/LGAEuropeanyearspeech.aspx

  • Powell, R. (2015). Housing benefit reform and the private rented sector in the UK: On the deleterious effects of short-term, ideological “knowledge”. Housing, Theory and Society, 32(3), 320–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravetz, A. (2003). Council housing and culture: The history of a social experiment. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rex, J., & Moore, R. (1967). Race, community and conflict. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, D. (2008). Community cohesion and the politics of communitarianism. In J. Flint & D. Robinson (Eds.), Community cohesion in crisis? New dimensions of diversity and difference (pp. 15–34). Bristol: Policy Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, D. (2010). New immigrants and migrants in social housing in Britain: Discursive themes and lived realities. Policy and Politics, 38(1), 57–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, D., Reeve, K., & Casey, R. (2007). The housing pathways of new immigrants. York: JRF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shildrick, T., MacDonald, R., Webster, C., & Garthwaite, K. (2012). Poverty and insecurity: Life in low-pay, no-pay Britain. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. (2009). Haunted by the spectre of judgement: Respectability, value and affect in class relations. In K. P. Sveinsson (Ed.), Who cares about the white working class? (pp. 36–45). London: Runnymede Trust.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slater, T. (2014). The myth of “Broken Britain”: Welfare reform and the production of ignorance. Antipode, 46(4), 948–969.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, S., Ruhs, M., Anderson, B., & Rogaly, B. (2007). The experiences of Central and Eastern European migrants in the UK. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vertovec, S. (2006). The emergence of super-diversity in Britain. Oxford: OUP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L. (2004). Critical thought as solvent of Doxa. Constellations, 11(1), 97–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L. (2008a). Urban outcasts. London: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L. (2008b). Ghettos and anti-ghettos: An anatomy of the new urban poverty. Thesis Eleven, 94, 113–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L. (2009a). Punishing the poor. London: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L. (2009b). The body, the ghetto and the penal state. Qualitative Sociology, 32, 101–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L. (2013). Class, ethnicity and state in the making of marginality: Revisiting “Urban Outcasts”. Dansk Sociologi, 33–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L. (2014). Marginality, ethnicity and penality in the neo-liberal city: An analytic cartography. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(10), 1687–1711.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L., Slater, T., & Pereira, V. B. (2014). Territorial stigmatization in action. Environment and Planning A, 46(6), 1270–1280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watt, P. (2018). Gendering the right to housing in the city: Homeless female lone parents in Post-Olympics, austerity East London. Cities, 76, 43–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watt, P., & Smets, P. (2017). Social housing and urban renewal. London: Emerald.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, M. (2012). Out of sight, out of mind: The exploitation of migrant workers in 21st-century Britain. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 20(1), 13–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Ryan Powell

  2. Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    David Robinson

Authors
  1. Ryan Powell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Robinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryan Powell .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    John Flint

  2. Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Ryan Powell

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Powell, R., Robinson, D. (2019). Housing, Ethnicity and Advanced Marginality in England. In: Flint, J., Powell, R. (eds) Class, Ethnicity and State in the Polarized Metropolis. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16222-1_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16222-1_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16221-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16222-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation