The housing pillar of the Mediterranean welfare regime: Family, state and market in the social production of home ownership in Italy

The housing pillar of the Mediterranean welfare regime: Family, state and market in the social production of home ownership in Italy

Poggio, T.

2008-11-13

The main features of the “Mediterranean home ownership model” are presented and compared to the characteristics of this kind of tenure in other Western European countries. Home ownership in Southern Europe and the factors underpinning its expansion are discussed by considering the interplay between this housing resource and other areas of welfare. Italy is used as an exemplary case. It is argued that home ownership performs a major role in these welfare systems because it is a means to satisfy housing needs, a form of social security; a re-stratification factor and a way to redistribute resources within the life course and between generations; a form of housing provision that fosters proximity between generations and hence structurally sustains the reproduction of a system of care provision based on intra-family relationships and mutual support. The paper does not argue that this is a phenomenon, strictly speaking, specific to Southern Europe, but rather that, in the Mediterranean countries - in a context of limited welfare provision by the state – the role performed by home ownership, as a multifaceted resource, is particularly important. More recent trends and problems arising from the gradual shift towards a more market-driven home ownership model are also discussed.

home ownership, Mediterranean welfare regime, Italy

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Conference proceedings

conference paper

(c) 2008 Poggio, T.