House Society

<p>The world is in the midst of a deep and worsening housing crisis. It has caused rents to soar in Britain, millions to protest in Spain, and a government to collapse in Sweden. Under a global ideology that exalts homeownership above all else, on every continent we see greed trump the human need for housing.</p><p>Yet we still think of housing problems as a symptom of other issues – of inequality, migration, or regulation. Award-winning geographer Brett Christophers turns this thinking on its head. Housing does not merely reflect our societies’ problems. Instead, it makes our societies what they are.</p><p>Journeying across both hemispheres – from the scapegoating of migrants in Canada to the turning of Brazilian favelas into investment opportunities, and American corporations taking advantage of depopulation in Japan – Christophers reveals in stark terms how the relation between landlords and tenants shapes all of our lives, and how everywhere renting exists marginalised in the shadow of homeownership.</p><p>With incisive clarity and passion, <i>House Society</i> shows how different countries’ housing crises have been made, and how, in turn, they are remaking our entire world. But Christophers shows that we can still choose to make housing – and our world – differently.</p>