RC43 Conference 2013 - ‘At home in the housing market’, 10 - 12 July 2013, Centre for Urban Studies, University of Amsterdam.

Conference theme:
In contemporary societies, the meaning and function of the built environment has been transformed by the intensification and growing volatility of capital accumulation in housing and real estate. With sustained housing commodification in context of declining economic stability, most households have become ever more sensitive to the status of their homes as exchange goods and consider their respective housing market positions as central to their chances of security or future prosperity. This conference explores the dynamic interaction between homes and (housing) markets over time and across different socio-economic contexts. There are various ways of thinking about the idea of ‘being at home’ in this regard. First are the connections between homes as places, spaces and objects of family and social life, as well as housing commodities that circulate on, and are subject to, fickle and dispassionate markets. Second is the significance of the shift from pre- to post-crisis conditions and how the housing market has been experienced in different cities, regions and countries. In Europe and North America, for example, there is a distinction that not only marks out a fundamental economic reorientation but also cultural, socio-political and even family and generational transitions. In Latin America and East Asia by contrast, housing has not been so interwoven with recent global economic crises, albeit with housing commodification still deeply embedded with social change.

This conference incorporates and Young / New Researchers pre-conference

For further details go to RC 43 Conference 2013