Comparing cities and regions rather than countries?

A research agenda for international comparative housing research 2.0.

Conference paper (2019)

Authors

J.S.C.M. Hoekstra Housing Institutions & Governance - Architecture and the Built Environment
Research Group
Housing Institutions & Governance (Architecture and the Built Environment) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2019 J.S.C.M. Hoekstra
Welfare state Housing policy Comparative housing
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Published Date

2019

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Department

Management in the Built Environment

Research Group

Housing Institutions & Governance

Abstract

International comparative housing research usually takes countries as a unit of analysis. Studies in the field typically connect housing outcomes at the national level to national welfare state and housing regimes. However, as a result of both supranational developments (globalization, financialization, neoliberalization, European Union integration) and intranational developments (devolution of powers to regional and local entities, restructuring of national welfare states, rise of bottom‐up collaborative movements), the influence of the national state clearly seems to eroding. In response to this trend, this paper explores a new form of international comparative housing research, in which not countries but (city) regions are the unit of analysis. Why do we need such a new form of comparative housing research? How can it be conceptualized? What are relevant research questions? What should we measure? The answers to these questions are formulated in the form of an agenda for further research and discussion.