International Handbook of Housing Policies and Practices

(Hardback)

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Description

Housing issues and policy problems are both universal in scope and, at the same time, inherently specific to a given time and place. All countries are wrestling with their own housing problems and with the everyday mechanics of housing supply and regulation. Specific problems vary from country to country and the policy instruments and institutions chosen to address those problems vary. Definitions of housing problems and approaches to housing policies are firmly embedded in particular national and cultural contexts. This book is a source of analyses and information necessary to understand these contexts. It aims to provide the raw materials for undertaking comparative studies of housing issues and policy problems. The contributors aim to demonstrate how housing is worldwide an integral component of a nation's financial system, its social structure, and its political and policy making apparatus. As the contributors suggest there are no complete or simple solutions to contemporary housing problems. This compilation points to the value of cross-national work when dealing with these complex issues.

Reviews

This important new source provides greater insight into and awareness of housing experiences in other societies, allowing for a more informed assessment of our own national experiences and priorities. This unique compilation points to the value of cross-national work when dealing with these complex issues.-Choice
"This important new source provides greater insight into and awareness of housing experiences in other societies, allowing for a more informed assessment of our own national experiences and priorities. This unique compilation points to the value of cross-national work when dealing with these complex issues."-Choice

Author Bio

WILLEM VAN VLIET is a sociologist in the College of Environmental Design and a Research Associate in the Program on Population Processes in the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is secretary of the Executive Council of the Working Group on Housing and the Built Environment of the International Sociological Association. He has edited several books on housing including Housing Markets and Policies Under Fiscal Austerity (Greenwood Press, 1987), Housing and Neighborhoods (with H. Choldin, W. Michelson, and D. Popenoe) (Greenwood Press, 1987), the Handbook of Housing and the Built Environment in the United States (with E. Huttman, Greenwood Press, 1988), and Women, Housing and Community.