A new approach to housing theory: Sex, gender and the domestic economy

Abstract

Housing has to compete for resources with industrial and commercial capital. Beyond this economic dimension, large numbers of housing intellectuals and policymakers argue persuasively that housing has strong claims to fulfil basic social needs. Sometimes such arguments will be used to justify some provisions of subsidies to housing, though from the very nature of housing, it is seldom easy to establish common and agreed notions of ‘subsidy’ among the antagonists in the social needs debates. An issue which is very much related to this is whether housing should as a whole, and perhaps admitting some cross‐subsidisation, resource and finance its own capital and maintenance costs. Most of the inherently contentious debates on these issues are pursued within some general theory of political economy, with liberal‐capitalist and socialist‐radical versions in competition with each other. In this piece of writing an alternative theory and approach is presented. Essentially it begins from the assumption that housing is domestic capital (as distinct from industrial capital) which is economically productive, though its products are often consumed ‘at home’ rather than being marketed. This new theoretical approach completely alters perceptions on how economic resourcing and social needs can be linked. It has implications for the roles of women (and men) in our society, as well as forming a new contribution to the social economics of housing.