The People's Home?

The People's Home is a magisterial examination of the development of social rented housing over the last hundred years in six advanced capitalist countries - Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and the USA. Preface.

Introduction: Social Housing and Welfare Capitalism.

1. Social Housing and the `Social Question': Housing Reform before 1914.

2. The Temporary Solution: Social Housing after the Great War.

3. Social Housing in the Depression.

4. The Golden Age: Social Housing in an Era of Reconstruction and Growth.

5. Residualism Revived: Social Housing in the Contemporary Era.

6. Social Housing and Theories of Social Policy.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index.

"This book presents the most authoritative comparative account of the origins of social rented housing and its subsequent development. By setting housing development. By setting housing developments in the context of historical changes in economies, politics and the development of the welfare state, it provides an important contribution to key debates in housing and social policy. The result is a text which is likely to be a key reference for those seeking to analyse and understand the housing situation and influences on its change." Alan Murie, Heriot-Watt University "Michael Harloe's review of social rented housing in six countries draws on research extending over 20 years. It will be welcomed by all students of housing and social policies." David Donnison, University of Glasgow "This book deserves to be acclaimed on at least two counts. It offers a penetrating explanation and not just a descriptive account of the developments of social rented housing in capitalist countries and therefore provides a much needed-basis for the evaluation, or introduction of new policies. Its coverage of international evidence is without peer, and it will be a source of inspiration to scholars and housing directorates for many years to come.
But the book is also a major sociological contribution to the understanding of social policy in general. Housing has always been the odd man out in the apparatus of the national welfare state and has not always been given sufficient priority in accounts of social change. Michael Harloe places housing at the centre of public and scientific attention and this is bound to change a lot of ideas about the present welfare state. With the international breadth of his approach Michael Harloe shows what sociologists can do for the understanding of social policy - and perhaps therefore lay the basis for the construction of an international welfare state.
Covering a wide range of international evidence the book is a tightly controlled theoretical exposition of social rented housing within general social policy. It is a formidable achievement." Peter Townsend, University of Bristol "This book is the boldest comparative study of housing policies I have ever read, and of a kind we all were waiting for. Detailed first-hand findings fit remarkably well in broad, analytical perspectives. Michael Harloe offers us both an account and an epic of the welfare state in that field, its premises and promises, its fulfillments and shortcomings, its looming demise." Christian Topalov, Harvard University "This is the closest thing to a definitive study of social rented housing in advanced capitalist countries currently available, and I do not expect it to be superseded for many years to come." Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design Michael Harloe is Pro Vice Chancellor Research and Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK. He is founder Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, published by Blackwell. Of his many books the most recent is Divided Cities: New York and London in the Contemporary World (Blackwell, 1992), co-edited with Susan Fainstein and Ian Gordon. "This is a big book in every sense: spirit, vision and coverage. It is an impressive piece of scholarship which will become a marker for all studies of housing and related policy issues. This is the first really comprehensive attempt to discuss the history of housing policy issues in the context of the political and economic processes of the last 150 years. It is the best piece of sustained comparative research I know of in the field. It should be of interest to those in various fields of social policy studies as well as housing.

Scholars, policy makers and administrators will simply have to read this book. Its breadth and depth of coverage, and the sophistication of its exploration of theoretical issues, confirm Harloe as one of the major social scientists in housing and related areas of study." Patrick Troy, Australian National University, The People's Home? examines the development of social rented housing over the last hundred years in Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and the USA. It is based on 15 years of research in these countries and a challenging analysis of the socio-economic and political determinants of social housing provision.

Rejecting previous comparative studies, which focus narrowly on the immediate determinants of housing provision, The People's Home? shows how social housing policies and outcomes have been shaped by broader societal forces - political conflict, economic modernisation, and, most recently, the growth of inequality and social polarization.

This important book ends by discussing the implications of this analysis for recent theories of welfare state development, or regimes of "welfare capitalism", and for the nature of state housing policies in such societies.