Immaterial Inheritance: The Socialization of Cultures of Housing Consumption

Living in a small home: expectations, impression management, and compensatory practices

“…I have to get rid of things here' (Valentina,49,studio,PRS,London). As noted by Nethercote (2019), compromising on the size of the home could demonstrate a pragmatic orientation to housing, and this is reflected in these participants' narratives by the practices they enacted in relation to objects.…”

“…The UK is a homeownership society (Ronald, 2008), in which a set of values about the advantages of ownership over renting have been fostered by government policy, societal expectations, and the 'immaterial inheritance' of socialisation (Nethercote, 2019). Alongside other housing attributes, ownership comes to convey a particular status, achievement and responsibility (Cheshire et al, 2010;Flint, 2003).…”

“…Housing outcomes-both in terms of tenure, and size-were also often linked to normative ideals of what should be achieved at a particular life stage. This constitutes a kind of 'immaterial inheritance' , in which preferences for particular housing forms are transferred through generations (Nethercote, 2019). Therefore, family experiences also contribute to the shaping of housing aspirations, as Isla demonstrates: 'My mum's worked really hard to where the business is now … her house is really nice and … it is big … If she's done it then I'm … confident that I'll be able to do … just as well' (Isla, 31, 3-bed new-build family house, 73 m 2 , OO, Sheffield).…”

New Conceptions of Sufficient Home Size in High-Income Countries: Are We Approaching a Sustainable Consumption Transition?

“…Fostering public appreciation of the connections among climate change, sustainability, sufficiency, and home size is unquestionably an ambitious undertaking given the degree to which the existing system of residential supply in most high-income countries is oriented towards construction of relatively larger rather than smaller homes (Knack 1999;Nasar, Evans-Cowley, and Mantero 2007;Dwyer 2009;Lung-Amam 2013;Wiesel, Pinnegar, and Freestone 2013). Moreover, it would be a mistake to ignore the role that housing plays as an investment vehicle (both to benefit from prospective value appreciation and to access often lucrative public subsidies) (Burbridge 2000;Forrest 2008Forrest , 2018, as a means of generating competitive social advantage (especially in societies characterized by marked inequalities in income and wealth) (Conley 2001;Filandri and Berolini 2016;Reeves 2017), as a signifier of status and aspirational identity (Silva and Wright 2009;Leguizamon 2010Leguizamon , 2016Nethercote 2019), and as a consequential determinant of disparate health outcomes (Searle, Smith, and Cook 2009;Laaksonen, Tarkiainen, and Martikainen 2009;Smith 2012;Jones-Round, Evans, and Braubach 2014). 2 In addition to these largely instrumental factors, there are practical considerations why a larger home might be preferable for reasons of personal and familial spaciousness, storage, adaptability to changing needs, and general satisfaction (Kuhlmann 2019).…”

Multiple property ownership in times of late homeownership: a new conceptual vocabulary

“…The third type of MPO is intergenerational support properties defined as secondary dwellings owned by a family to support children by giving them entry to the housing market (Arundel, 2017;Arundel & Hochstenbach, 2019;Hochstenbach & Boterman, 2017;Lennartz & Helbrecht, 2018;McKee et al, 2017;Nethercote, 2019b). Along with the decline of labour market security, rising house prices have come to constitute an increasing barrier for many younger people to access the housing market.…”