290001 VO Housing and Housing Policy (2008W)

Economic, social and political problems of housing are treated by many disciplines, inter alia within human geography and regional research. The interdisciplinary concept of "structures of housing provision" (by economist BALL and sociologist HARLOE) will be used as a framework for this lecture, to give an overview of current research questions related to housing problems in highly developed societies. Case studies from Austria are given priority, but they are always set in relation to developments in other European and non-European OECD countries. The many instruments of housing policy, at the local, the regional, the national and (occasionally) the European level are presented in detail. Great attention is paid to the institutional and cultural context of housing policy within different welfare regimes (after ESPING-ANDERSEN). The final part of the lecture focusses on the more dramatic housing problems of less developed countries.