Working-Class Homeownership: From Policy Making to Paths to Independent Housing

Promoting homeownership for low-income households has become political in a variety of national and historical contexts. However, at least in France and other Western countries, sociological studies of the working class have often been associated with public housing. This issue analyzes the policy making supporting the rise of homeownership among the working class, and the role of high-ranking civil servants, experts, local authorities, and home builders in it. It also questions the impacts of such housing policies on social inequities. How do the trajectories of homeowners, partly shaped by such public policies, redefine social hierarchies? This paper highlights the participations of various actors in a renewed study of social classes while it calls for further research on the subject.