Homeowner Ideologies

Abstract

Historically, policies and physical standards have dominated thinking on housing issues, reducing the housing dimension to units of accom-modation and measures of habitability. However, meanings, values and ideological formations guide how individuals use this space and relate from within to the outside world (Arias, 1993). In understanding the role and impact of home ownership therefore, it is necessary to address effects at the subjective and inter-subjective level, where material practices and discourses related to owner-occupation are considered to have particular outcomes on individuals (or ‘housing consumers’ as they have been increasingly constituted) and social relations.