Housing Careers in Croatia: From Socialist Self-Management to Crisis of Financial Capitalism Cover Image

Stambene karijere u Hrvatskoj: od samoupravnog socijalizma do krize financijskog kapitalizma
Housing Careers in Croatia: From Socialist Self-Management to Crisis of Financial Capitalism

Author(s): Petra Rodik, Teo Matković, Josip Pandžić
Subject(s): Economic history, Social history, Social development, Rural and urban sociology, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), History of Communism
Published by: Hrvatsko sociološko društvo
Keywords: housing tenure; transition; career; provision; event history; sequence analysis; Croatia;

Summary/Abstract: High homeownership level shows little about how individuals and households in Croatia resolve their housing issue, while cross-sectional data on tenure structure, housing policies, and pre-transitional research studies provide insufficient answers to this question. By relying on the concepts of housing tenures, housing transitions, and housing careers, as well as on the periodisation of dominant housing provision structures from 1975 to 2015, this paper addresses the following questions: first, what are the dominant forms of housing transitions in Croatia? Second, how are housing careers connected to the resulting tenures? And third, what are the dominant patterns of housing careers in Croatia? These questions are then related to housing provision characteristics in certain periods and, lastly, considered from the perspective of intercohort differences. This paper is based on an analysis of retrospective survey data on housing careers, which was carried out using event history and sequence analysis methods. The survey was conducted on a national representative sample (N=1000) as part of the IPSOS Puls Omnibus research in November 2016. The analysis is focussed on the identification of housing patterns in Croatia, and the account of individuals’ housing careers during the socialist and post-socialist periods (1975–2015). Throughout the whole period, family-type self-provision of housing was dominant, followed by housing transitions based on market supply that were rising in numbers. Persistently least represented and almost vanquished by the start of the crisis period were socialised transition modalities. Housing transitions from parents’ home started late and the duration of once-started tenures was very long, especially in the case of homeownership. Housing careers are relatively simple and mostly lead to homeownership, often also through staying in a family home.

  • Issue Year: 49/2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 319-348
  • Page Count: 30
  • Language: Croatian