Deconstructing Coincidence: How Middle-Class Households use Various Forms of Capital to Find a Home

Abstract

When asked to explain how they acquired a home middle-class households often forward a series of coincidences. This paper shows that what is experienced as sheer luck may actually be explicable by taking into account the various forms of capital people command. In this paper theories of Bourdieu and De Certeau are applied to the housing market and are used to explore the strategies and tactics people apply to acquire a home. For this study I draw on in-depth semi-structured interviews carried out in Copenhagen, Denmark and Amsterdam, the Netherlands among middle-class households. This paper shows that in order to explain access to housing it is necessary to investigate housing market practices and include other forms of capital than merely financial, such as for example social networks, embodied taste, and knowledge of the legal and institutional context. It is suggested that the way in which class is spatially produced tends to be working differently for various fractions of the middle class.

key words:

• Habitus
• Capital
• Field
• Housing
• Middle class

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Lia Karsten, Sako Musterd, Wouter van Gent, three anonymous referees and editor David Clapham for useful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The research reported here was funded by the NWO, research grant 400-07-058.

Notes

1. I interviewed 26 couples twice, once in 2008 and the second time in 2010, and three couples only once, in 2008.

2. The fine for subletting illegally is a maximum of €18,000, and for subrenting €340; see http://www.wzs.amsterdam.nl/pro/aanpak_woonfraude/handhavingsbesluiten/bestuurlijke_boete

3. According to the Amsterdam federation of housing associations 20,000 dwellings (10%) are illegally sublet. They fear, however, that this is a conservative estimate. See http://afwc.nl/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=31

4. The housing associations changed the rules for allocation. They call it literally “new rules of the game”. See http://www.woningnet.nl/pagina.asp?pageid=5366&IID=5

5. According to research by the Danish housing council (Erhverv & Boligstyrelsen 2006) money under the table is a relatively minor phenomenon. Acquiring a dwelling via family or acquaintances, however, is very common: about two thirds of andel housing is so allocated. The seller can be fined or even face criminal prosecution, the buyer can be fined. See http://www.kuben.dk/composite-618.htm