title: Intersections between housing affordability and meanings of home: A review

authors: Barrett, Patrick

abstract: Research into housing affordability has flourished alongside growth in house prices, just as successive governments have used a range of policy levers to curb price increases. To date, however, these policies have met with little success. One persuasive explanation for that failure is that housing policies have been developed using affordability metrics in ways that have reinforced neoliberal prescriptions for the provision of housing, and that such policies are doomed to fail. Neoliberal policy settings continue to be influential, even in an environment where, under the current Labour Government, there is a rhetorical rejection of these prescriptions. Against this background, this review paper explores how a housing affordability research agenda might be bolstered by examining intersections between dimensions of affordability and meanings of home. Emerging research suggests that when housing is unaffordable, it becomes an arena of struggle in which dwellings are transformed in ways that undermine the potential to provide security, stability, and connection associated with meanings of home. The article concludes by suggesting research questions to examine that struggle in the pursuit of a sense of home, and in so doing, gain a better understanding of the lived experience of unaffordability.

text: Intersections between housing affordability and meanings of home: A review Research into housing affordability has flourished alongside growth in house prices, just as successive governments have used a range of policy levers to curb price increases. To date, however, these policies have met with little success. One persuasive explanation for that failure is that housing policies have been developed using affordability metrics in ways that have reinforced neoliberal prescriptions for the provision of housing, and that such policies are doomed to fail. Neoliberal policy settings continue to be influential, even in an environment where, under the current Labour Government, there is a rhetorical rejection of these prescriptions. Against this background, this review paper explores how a housing affordability research agenda might be bolstered by examining intersections between dimensions of affordability and meanings of home. Emerging research suggests that when housing is unaffordable, it becomes an arena of struggle in which dwellings are transformed in ways that undermine the potential to provide security, stability, and connection associated with meanings of home. The article concludes by suggesting research questions to examine that struggle in the pursuit of a sense of home, and in so doing, gain a better understanding of the lived experience of unaffordability.

year: 2022-06-12

title: Immigration and innovation in European regions

authors: Poot, Jacques

subjects: immigration

abstract: The pooling of people with diverse backgrounds in particular areas may boost the creation of new ideas, knowledge spillovers, entrepreneurship and economic growth. In this paper we measure the impact of the size, skills and diversity of immigration on innovativeness of host regions. For this purpose we construct a panel of data on 170 regions in Europe (NUTS 2 level) for the period 1991-2001. Innovation outcomes are measured by means of the number and types of patent applications. Given the geographical concentration and subsequent diffusion of innovation activity, and the spatial selectivity of immigrant settlement patterns, we take account of spatial dependence and of endogeneity of immigrant settlement in the econometric modelling. We find that an increase in patent applications in a region is associated with (i) net immigration; (ii) the share of foreigners in the population of the region; (iii) the average skill level of the immigrants; and (iv) the cultural diversity of the immigrants. The magnitude of these effects varies between types of patents.

text: Immigration and innovation in European regions The pooling of people with diverse backgrounds in particular areas may boost the creation of new ideas, knowledge spillovers, entrepreneurship and economic growth. In this paper we measure the impact of the size, skills and diversity of immigration on innovativeness of host regions. For this purpose we construct a panel of data on 170 regions in Europe (NUTS 2 level) for the period 1991-2001. Innovation outcomes are measured by means of the number and types of patent applications. Given the geographical concentration and subsequent diffusion of innovation activity, and the spatial selectivity of immigrant settlement patterns, we take account of spatial dependence and of endogeneity of immigrant settlement in the econometric modelling. We find that an increase in patent applications in a region is associated with (i) net immigration; (ii) the share of foreigners in the population of the region; (iii) the average skill level of the immigrants; and (iv) the cultural diversity of the immigrants. The magnitude of these effects varies between types of patents.

year: 2010

title: The new kava user: Diasporic identity formation in reverse

authors: Aporosa, S. 'Apo'

subjects: diaspora

abstract: Diaspora' studies have broadened their definition to now include hybridised identities situated in both the past and future. The formation of the Indo-Fijian ethnicity is an example of the evolution of a hybrid diasporic identity. This article briefly discusses Indo-Fijian diaspora in Fiji before shifting its focus to Aotearoa New Zealand. In this new setting, diaspora understanding will take a new direction that concentrates on the uptake of kava drinking and aspects of the kava culture by some Māori and Pālangi/Pākehā. In doing so, the article examines how these Māori and Pālangi/Pākehā, as the 'hosts', are expanding their cultural identity by embracing an icon of identity that came with a diasporic population – Pasifikans to Aotearoa – essentially creating diasporic identity formation in reverse.

text: The new kava user: Diasporic identity formation in reverse Diaspora' studies have broadened their definition to now include hybridised identities situated in both the past and future. The formation of the Indo-Fijian ethnicity is an example of the evolution of a hybrid diasporic identity. This article briefly discusses Indo-Fijian diaspora in Fiji before shifting its focus to Aotearoa New Zealand. In this new setting, diaspora understanding will take a new direction that concentrates on the uptake of kava drinking and aspects of the kava culture by some Māori and Pālangi/Pākehā. In doing so, the article examines how these Māori and Pālangi/Pākehā, as the 'hosts', are expanding their cultural identity by embracing an icon of identity that came with a diasporic population – Pasifikans to Aotearoa – essentially creating diasporic identity formation in reverse.

year: 2015