DISCUSS THE CONTENTION THAT HOUSING TENURE IS NOW LESS IMPORTANT FOR

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DISCUSS THE CONTENTION THAT HOUSING TENURE IS NOW LESS IMPORTANT FORDISTINGUISHING BETWEEN SOCIAL CLASSES THAN IN THE 1950S"Does housing in general, and home ownership in particular, compriseanything more than just a class-related distributive outcome?"(Hamnett 1995:257)Hamnett posed this question in 1995 in his paper 'Home Ownership andthe Middle Classes'. He went on to investigate possible answers inmuch the same way as I intend to discuss the contention that housingtenure is now less important for distinguishing between social classesthan in the 1950s. Housing has always been of interest to geographersand sociologists alike, in their quest to determine socialstratification and in their investigation into the variousrelationships between society and space. Indeed in the 1950s socialtheorists and policy analysts were mainly concerned with thereconstruction and repair of the post war society and the housingissues relating to that, in particular a desperate need and demand foran increased and improved council stock. However since then, andcertainly in the latter half of the twentieth century, their focus hasfallen much more on tenure, especially the continual rise of homeownership, its causes, its effects and specifically its relationshipwith class.In thins essay I will briefly give a description of housing tenure andan explanation of social classes (as seen from two view points) inorder to set the scene. I then propose to paint a social picture ofthe 1950s and the ideas surrounding housing tenure and social classesat the time, and indeed their importance. In order to draw acomparison I will go on to give an account of present day theorieslike that of Hamnett, Saunders, Forrest and others, and investigatewhether the entitled contention is justifiable.Social class is a concept which identifies certain groups withinsociety that share common characteristics, over and above all, interms of wealth, to create a somewhat hierarchical system of socialstratification. Two prominent theories surrounding social class arethat of Marx and Weber. Marxist and Neo-Marxist theorists base classon the capitalist job market, with its unequal power relations betweenthe owners of capital (or the means of production) and the workingclass i.e. your occupation determines which strata or class of societyyou fall into. Weberians on the other hand, base class on people'sability to compete in any market situation. Both of these theories arevalid and play a role in people's perception of class. Most commonlyidentified
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classes are that of the upper class, middle class andworking class, the latter with the least amount of income and wealth,and the former the most. Some sociologists and social theorists inrecent years have also argued that capitalist societies (mostevidently Britain and the USA) have begun to create an under class, ofsocially excluded people who are trapped in deprivation and theirexclusion. This all goes into what we as geographers come to discernas class and what I mean when I refer to class in this paper.In addition to class, housing tenure is the other component underdiscussion in this essay. Housing tenure is ...

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