Incremental Change in Housing Regimes: Some Theoretical Propositions with Empirical Illustrations Cover Image

Incremental Change in Housing Regimes: Some Theoretical Propositions with Empirical Illustrations
Incremental Change in Housing Regimes: Some Theoretical Propositions with Empirical Illustrations

Author(s): Sebastian Kohl, Bengtsson Bo
Subject(s): Welfare systems, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Sociologický ústav
Keywords: comparative housing policy ; home ownership ; private rented markets ;social housing;

Summary/Abstract: The durable structures of housing and housing institutions are often subject to long-term processes of incremental change. Nevertheless, housing studies have largely focused either on static snapshots of policies or, more recently, on the inertia of institutional path dependence, while processes of incremental change have been almost entirely neglected. Political scientists (Streeck/Thelen/Mahoney) have proposed a typology of patterns of incremental institutional change, and this paper explores the applicability of this typology to housing structures and housing institutions. We draw on empirical illustrations from the housing literature to show how five types of change – layering, conversion, displacement, drift, exhaustion – apply to housing structures and institutions. We conclude with some general observations on how the typology can be used in further studies of developments in national housing regimes.

  • Issue Year: 7/2020
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 15-24
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English