Article
Class divide finds a new home
Social class is the most important factor determining attitudes to moving home, and is holding some people back from taking advantage of the housing market and regeneration.A newly-published academic study, carried out by sociology professor Chris Allen, of Manchester Metropolitan University, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, examined the attitudes to moving home among people living in a part of Liverpool targeted for regeneration and found class to be the key factor in how people aspired to live.
Following interviews with residents, directors of regeneration companies, community workers, estate agents and local officials, the research shows that as the ideal of suburban life has become culturally dominant, the working class see it as increasingly beyond their reach.
The research also concludes that people in the middle classes are likely to see regeneration as a good thing, and something they can take advantage of in the long term, while the working classes tend to see it as an intrusion. The working classes also regard regeneration of inner-city areas as something over which they have very little control.
According to Allen, the ideal of suburban living has encouraged further entrenchment of class attitudes toward home ownership, reducing the chance of housing mobility.
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