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Race, Class and the Allocation of Public Housing in Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Jeff Henderson

    (Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning University of Hong Kong)

  • Valerie Karn

    (Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham)

Abstract

This article uses data from surveys of public housing applicants and tenants and from an ethnographic study of the procedures of a major British housing authority to explain the reasons for racially discriminatory housing allocations. It shows how central judgments of 'respectability' are to the allocation processes of housing departments, even when, officially, allocations are based on a system of 'housing need'. We trace how class and racial factors in the wider society become invested with official or semi-official status as they are absorbed into the housing authority's rationing processes, both of a formal and a more informal nature. We advance an explanation for discriminatory allocations which emphasises on the one hand, the integration of public housing bureaucracies into an inegalitarian social totality and, on the other, the conceptual connexion between racial, class and other forms of social discrimination.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeff Henderson & Valerie Karn, 1984. "Race, Class and the Allocation of Public Housing in Britain," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 21(2), pages 115-128, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:21:y:1984:i:2:p:115-128
    DOI: 10.1080/00420988420080281
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Vaughan Robinson, 1980. "Asians and Council Housing," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 17(3), pages 323-331, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Benoît SCHMUTZ & Grégory VERDUGO, 2020. "Do Politicians Shape the Electorate ? Evidence from French Municipalities," Working Papers 2020-18, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics, revised 01 Apr 2021.
    2. Crawfurd, Lee & Ramli, Ukasha, 2020. "Discrimination by Politicians against Religious Minorities: Experimental Evidence from the UK," SocArXiv tc42s, Center for Open Science.
    3. van Ham, Maarten & Manley, David, 2012. "Segregation, Choice Based Letting and Social Housing: How Housing Policy Can Affect the Segregation Process," IZA Discussion Papers 6372, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Annette Hastings, 2009. "Poor Neighbourhoods and Poor Services: Evidence on the ‘Rationing’ of Environmental Service Provision to Deprived Neighbourhoods," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(13), pages 2907-2927, December.
    5. Schmutz, Benoît & Verdugo, Gregory, 2023. "Do elections affect immigration? Evidence from French municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    6. David Manley & Maarten van Ham, 2011. "Choice-based Letting, Ethnicity and Segregation in England," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(14), pages 3125-3143, November.

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