Title: Chapter 1 Housing careers, intergenerational support and family relations
Description: The home and family have always been mutually embedded, with
the former central to the realization and reproduction of the latter.
More recently, this mutuality has taken on a more critical salience as
realignments in housing markets, employment and welfare states in
many countries have worked together to undermine housing access
for new households. In this context, families have become increasingly
involved in smoothening the routes of young adults members up
the ‘housing ladder’ into home ownership. Intergenerational support
appears to have become much more widespread and not just confi ned
to familialistic welfare regimes. The role of intergenerational support
for housing remains, however, highly diff erentiated across countries,
cities and regions, as well as uneven between social and income
classes. This introduction to the Special Issue explores how the role
of housing wealth transfers has impacted the renegotiation of the
generational contract. In doing so, it sets the scene for the articles
that follow, each of which contribute signifi cantly to advancing
understanding of housing as a key driver of contemporary social
relations and inequalities.
Subjects: Society & culture: general