'Generation Rent' and the fallacy of choice
Date
21/08/2017Funder
Grant ID
RP2011-IJ-024
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Abstract
The now widely used term ‘Generation Rent’ reflects the growing phenomenon in the UK of young people living in the private rental sector for longer periods of their lives. Given the importance of leaving home in youth transitions to adulthood, this is a significant change. It is further critical given the rapid expansion of the private rented sector in the UK over recent decades and the more limited rights that private tenants have. This article draws on qualitative evidence to highlight the impact this has on young people's lives, and broader patterns of social-spatial inequality. Our research highlights that, whilst young people retain long-term preferences for homeownership, they nonetheless deconstruct this normalized ideal as a ‘fallacy of choice', given its unachievability in reality. Influenced by the work of Foucault, Bourdieu and Bauman, we emphasize how these dominant norms of housing consumption are in tension with objective reality, since young people's ability to become ‘responsible homeowners' is tempered by their material resources and the local housing opportunities available to them. Nonetheless, this does not exempt them from the ‘moral distinctions' being made, wherein renting is problematized and constructed as ‘flawed consumption'. These conceptual arguments advance international scholarly debates about the governance of consumption, offering a novel theoretical lens through which to examine the difficulties facing ‘Generation Rent’.
Citation
McKee , K , Moore , T , Soaita , A & Crawford , J 2017 , ' 'Generation Rent' and the fallacy of choice ' , International Journal of Urban and Regional Research , vol. 41 , no. 2 , pp. 318-333 . https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12445
Publication
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0309-1317Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017 Urban Research Publications Limited. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12445
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