- Author
-
Conseil International du Batiment
- Title
- Twin Pursuits of Satisfactory Housing and Housing Satisfaction. Forging Links Between Societal, Institutional and Individual Perspectives.
- Coporate
- Conseil International du Batiment, Sweden
- Report
-
CIB Publication 212; CIB W69
1999
233 p.
- Keywords
-
housing
|
social learning theory
- Identifiers
- international and comparative perspectives in housing sociology; satisfactory housing; housing satisfaction
- Abstract
- "Housing Satisfaction" was the key theme of the CIB W69 Housing Sociology re-union in Tallinn, 1997. It was chosen a year earlier at the meeting in Paris. In many ways it marked a return to one of the core elements of this group's interests. What is a housing study about? In the most general terms, we might say, it would be a study about opportunities of citizens in specific social systems to achieve housing conditions that meet their needs and satisfy expectations. As a central discourse, focusing on the concept of satisfaction in relation to housing follows a logical path of a series of earlier academic encounters and analyses of housing systems of different traditions, which have been canvassed by this group. The recent societal transformations of the 1990's allow us to observe the essence and development of housing policies, markets, production and design from the comparative viewpoints offered by the diversity of social structures in different countries, yet the indispensability of a shared notion of satisfaction remains. One way or another, while studying housing, the concepts of housing satisfaction and satisfactory housing are explicitly emphasised or implicitly underlying every analysis, be it in relation to the housing opportunities of tenants or differentiated groups of homeowners, or as the focus of debate on consumers' or providers' strategic behaviour. The perceptions, demands and preferences as to housing have passed through considerable historical alteration alongside technological and societal development in the course of which the meaning of satisfactory housing as well as housing satisfaction has become diversified and complicated. A common feature identified in housing research, performed in a wide range of studies and from many perspectives, is the quest to re-think this variety of current differences in expectations and behavioural strategies of actors who, simultaneously, live out their personal housing histories and create a housing process. By issuing the current collection of papers from the 1997 W69 re-union, we intend to offer a range of reflections of understanding of the multifaceted and intertwined nature of the concepts of housing satisfaction and satisfactory housing. "Forging links" enfolds the interconnection and interdependence of housing strategies shaped by individual actors with the actions taken by institutional agents, contributing to the social construction of the imaginary and the real in the realm of housing.