How did the great transformation shape housing pathways? The case of older women living alone

Abstract

After the demise of state-socialism in Poland, the ‘great transformation’ brought about the marketization of housing. From a housing consumption perspective, these changes opened new housing opportunities for some households, while creating new housing constraints for others. Applying Clapham’s housing pathways framework, we explore how the transformation, as well as its legacies, were experienced by fourteen older women living alone in Poznań, a big city in Poland. Through in-depth interviews with a carefully selected and relatively diverse sample, this paper attempts to present a nuanced view of the impact of the transformation on the women’s housing pathways over time. We identify four pathways related to changes in housing consumption: self-made homeowners, accidental homeowners, pushed in precarious private renting, and ‘saved’ by municipal senior housing. By examining these women’s pathways, we aim to make sense of their unique experiences while providing a benchmark for evaluating transformations of housing systems.

Keywords:

• housing pathways
• older women
• Poland
• ageing
• marketization of housing systems
• privatization of housing

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers whose work truly helped us in developing this article. We would like to thank the research participants who generously shared their stories.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paweł Łuczak

Paweł Łuczak is assistant professor at the Department of Labour and Social Policy, Institute of Socio-Economics, Poznań University of Economics and Business. His main areas of research include long-term care policy, housing issues, and comparative social policy.

Maciej Ławrynowicz

Maciej Ławrynowicz is a Professor of Management and Organizational Theory at the Department of Labour and Social Policy at Poznań University of Economics and Business. His research interests include cooperative movement, housing, and the judiciary and post-socialist transformations.