Propriété et classes populaires: des politiques aux trajectoires

Abstract

Promoting home-ownership for low-income households has become a political motto in a variety of national and historical contexts. However, at least in France and Western countries, the sociological study of working-classes has often focused on social housing estates. This issue analyzes the making of policies supporting the rise of homeownership among working-classes, and the role of high-ranking civil servants, experts, local authorities or home-builders in it. It also questions the impacts of such housing policies on social inequalities. How do the residential careers of homeowners, partly shaped by such public policies, contribute to redefine social hierarchies? Introducing the different contributions of this issue, this paper highlights how they participate to a renewed study of social classes, and calls for further research on this matter.