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Abstract
Allied to notions of late modernity, Ulrich Beck’s “risk society” has found relevance in light of recent technological and global economic crises. By means of focus group research undertaken in Queensland, Australia, this article explores the relation of such concepts and dislocations to home ownership, property rights and place attachment, asking to what extent home ownership can be seen as a depository and remedy for the consequences of Beckian uncertainty. The findings are that, whereas the Maslovian attributes of safety, security and belongingness continue to be the root of contemporary home ownership, its meaning is elaborated when higher-order concepts such as lifestyle, identity, social capital and trust, and ontological security are entered into the analysis. Moreover, the traditional use value of a home is now intertwined with exchange value, though the latter is interpreted not proactively but more in a defensive sense.
Notes
1. Principally for reasons of space, the interpretation is essentially corroborative of Giddens and Beck. For more diverse commentary on late modernity and the risk society, see sources such as: Zinn (Citation2008), and Mythen (Citation2004).
2. King (Citation2004) demonstrates the significance of security, privacy and intimacy with the use of film, albeit through a negative representation of these factors.
3. Explanatory power has long been understood as both strength and a weakness of qualitative research (see Glaser & Strauss Citation1967).
4. The focus group schedule comprised a total of 25 questions, seven of which related to the current article and the remainder to the existence of public infrastructure in residential neighbourhoods.