In the 1980s and 90s, Kuala Lumpur underwent rapid urbanisation and industrialisation which resulted in the major demolition of perkampungan setinggan (squatter settlements) to make way for new ‘mega’ developments. As a result former squatter dwellers were relocated into low cost high-rise flats, with little consideration of the consequences. Unsurprisingly soon, their habits and customs established in the ‘kampung’ appeared to be incompatible with their new location. The tragic death in 1997 of a technical assistant killed by a brick thrown from a low-cost flat called for an awareness campaign to educate flat-dwellers on appropriate means of garbage disposal (Malay Mail 1997, as quoted in Bunnell, 2002: 1685), however, the logic of relocating squatters to high-rise apartments remained unchallenged. In 2001, the Selangor state government launched the Zero Squatters 2005 program in which the majority of former squatter dwellers were relocated into low-cost high-rise flats. This raises the question of why after the tragic incident in 1997 the Selangor government still chose to pursue a policy of high-rise flats as a solution to the housing issue? Therefore, the focus of this research was to study the implication of squatter relocation into this type of residential and how does governmentality and control through low cost housing policies impact the lives of those being controlled? Desa Mentari has been identified as a suitable case study for this research while its community were the main unit of analysis. Its selection was based on its characteristic, which is a neighbourhood for relocated former squatter dwellers that consisted of low-cost high-rise residential. Professionals were the sub-unit of analysis, mainly for their professional perspectives and knowledge of the issues surrounding the community of this neighbourhood. The data was then analysed against the five domains of the Infrastructure of Everyday Life which are home and neighbourhood, sources of support, having a say, enjoyment, and making ends meet. Based on the analysis, the thesis found that the main implication due to the relocation is the breakdown of the community structure, racial conflicts, the rise of social ills and the deficient living environment. The thesis also found that there were different levels of treatment between this lower income group and the affluent, and also between the different ethnic groups within the community. The work ultimately argues that planing and housing policy should be informed by the everyday live activities and needs of specific groups within society. It suggests that, because the everyday life framework consists of four domains, embedded within a fifth – the neighbourhood – it lends itself well as a tool for analysis of those needs and translation of that analysis into practical policy.

This research draws upon a combination of qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaire data to investigate the role static caravans play within second home consumerism. Fundamentally it seeks to explain why people buy such a fast depreciating property asset. Results suggest how irrespective of their income two thirds of such consumers show a passionate loyalty towards their static caravan and have little regard for alternative forms of retreat they could afford. Clearly there are significant reasons beyond price which explain such investment. At their broadest static caravans proved to be desirable for reasons of escape, salvation, control, enhancement and opportunity but a number of further concepts began to emerge which extend current understanding of second homes. Within the caravan, space and time were found to hold greater value, and by virtue of their compactness life was considered to be organized, tidier, simplified and as a consequence more enjoyable than that at the principal home. Many of the alluring features which were inherent in their design were discovered to create an environment in which living was perceived to be miniaturised, adventuresome and a fairytale. Remarkably the lack of space and permanence were not perceived to be shortcomings but attributes, providing further forms of freedom and connection with nature. Purchases were seen to be driven as much by an attachment with the space static caravans provided, and memories of previous occasions enjoyed in them, as any desire for location. Through utilising chi-square tests with both factor and cluster analysis the research has been able to identify four types of consumer and the effects of eight statistically significant variables upon their profiles and behaviour. The character traits of purchasers were found to be particularly high in levels of agreeableness, and their perpetual yo-yoing between the caravan and home proved to be so regular, and the community they engendered so familiar, touristic characteristics were little evident. Indeed this research questions whether such consumption can continue to be considered touristic, and provides a fresh insight into understanding the need for a second home. Regardless of environment what purchasers yearned was a leisurely existence at home without any sense of guilt. What static caravans were found to provide was permissible behaviour; a utility within which 'at leisure' could be transacted. For the first time this research quantifies the ownership of static caravan second homes and draws together a number of findings to explain the success they enjoy, to finally offer some resolve to the repeated calls for such study.

Mixed-income housing policy initiatives in the United States have attempted to reduce the social disorganization associated with concentrated urban poverty. Using a Portland, Oregon HOPE VI project as a single case study site, this thesis examined how residents' socio-economic status, correlated closely with tenure, informed neighborhood choice, social networks, social exchange and informal social control. The latter three concepts underpin collective efficacy for children, which provided the theoretical fi·amework for this thesis. Research methods relied on 42 in- depth interviews with parents and adolescents from rented and owned homes, lOin-depth interviews with Housing Authority of Portland staff members and neighborhood observation over a span of four months. The study revealed differences between lower-income renters' and higher-income owners' framing of neighborhood choice; these frames informed subsequent approaches to social ties, social exchange, and informal social control in the neighborhood. Parents' social networks typically did not span across tenures but adolescents' networks were more flexible; families' varied use of Portland's school choice program influenced the nature of these ties and other elements of social organization in the neighborhood. Institutional resources, in the form of staff employed in youth services and community building efforts, were particularly important to social capital activation among renter families. Finally, governance forums and public spaces informed territoriality in the neighborhood and the related perception of boundaries between rented and owned households. The theoretical implications of this research relate to the utility of mixed-income housing policy as a tool for poverty reduction, as well as how social dynamics are informed by socio-economic status and delineated by physical space.

The morphological characteristics of public spaces are of central concern for the generation of wealth at the neighbourhood level. This thesis explores how these characteristics might be formed so as to increase the potential for Mexican housing estates to overcome their current conditions of economic marginalisation. The economic systems currently established in these estates seem not to support property values or the profitability of businesses located there, nor to offer reasonable economic support for residents; in part because of the morphological characteristics of the residential environments in which trading relationships take place.

Although, much has been written about the housing conditions and segregation of minority ethnic groups, less has been written about their housing careers, residential mobility, and preferences. This thesis attempts to address these limitations in our knowledge and to enhance our understanding of the residential location and preferences of South Asian households. To fully explore these objectives the research adopts a triangulated approach; combining a quantitative study using census data of both the residential location and concentration of South Asian groups in the study area and in-depth interviews with migrating South Asian households. The major findings of the research show that over the past ten years Greater Glasgow has seen changes in the residential location of its South Asian population; the results of the census analysis detail the maintenance of both residential differentiation and continued concentration in the inner city as well as evidence of dispersal to traditionally white suburban areas, areas adjacent to the core and in-between areas. The processes underlying these changes are shown to be dynamic and complex, encompassing elements of choice and constraint and reflecting negotiated choices. Cultural expectations, religious observance, financial constraint and limited housing options interact with choice in sustaining ethnic clustering in the inner-city. On the other hand we seen the spatial ramifications of changing practices social aspirations and economic opportunity for a selected group of movers. Although ethnicity and religion play a continuing role in shaping the residential choices of the South Asians interviewed, these factors were not independent but interacted with individual/personal factors, class, economic status, gender, age, family issues and the dynamic nature of culture in determining locational needs and preferences. The South Asian population is shown to be differentiated from within. This suggests that the idea of a coherent ‘Asian community’ obscures differences and generates assumptions regarding residential behaviour and ‘in-group’ identities not matched in the empirical data presented here.

L'occupation illégale de terrains dans les quebradas et la construction de véritables quartiers populaires en dehors de l'ordre établi, trouve leur point de départ dans une crise structurale d'identité du logement social à Valparaiso, Chili. On ne peut pas considérer ces actions, comme une réponse mécanique à une carence. Il s'agit d'un processus social, étroitement lié aux rapports entre les forces sociales ; où la caractéristique essentielle est d'avoir construit un milieu résidentiel « auto construit», dans l'illégalité. Par ailleurs, les quebradas comme unités territoriales et rémanentes naturelles se trouvent dans un processus constant d'occupation et de dégradation, puisqu'il n'existe pas de stratégies urbaines précises et particulières pour ce type d'environnement, en supposant qu'elles disparaîtront ainsi d'elles-mêmes, sans considérer les bénéfices qu'elles produisent pour toute la ville comme contrôleurs climatologiques. Alors dans ces conditions, quelles sont les valeurs propres des quebradas qui devront être prises en compte dans les approches futures d'urbanisation? Peuvent-elles être intégrées dans une planification urbaine particulière ? Les normes de construction en vigueur pourront être modifiées en poursuivant une intégration réelle à la ville et une administration intégrale de son patrimoine naturel? Pourront-elles devenir comme des parcs urbains qui incluent le logement social ? Nous parlerons de quebradas puisque l'usage courant à Valparaiso est d'utiliser ce terme pour désigner des petites vallées encaissées dès que l'on s'éloigne du la plaine littorale. / The illegal occupation of land in the quebradas, and the building of real neighborhoods outside the established order, find their point of departure in a structural crisis of identity of social housing in Valparaiso, Chile. It is impossible to consider these actions as a mechanical response to deficiency. It is a social process, closely linked to the relationship between the social forces, it's essential characteristic being the construction of residential self built neighborhoods, in total illegality. The quebradas as territorial and persistent natural units are in a proces of constant occupation and degradation, since there are no precise and specific urban strategies for this type of environment, assuming that they will disappear, without considering the benefits they produce for the whole city as climate controllers. Under these conditions, what are the values of the quebradas that should be taken into account in future approaches to urbanization? Can they be integrated into a special urban planning? May the current construction standards be modified by pursuing a real integration in the city and a full administration of its natural heritage? Will they become like urban parks that include social housing? We will talk about quebrada, since it is common in Valparaiso to use this term in reference to small valleys incised as soon as one moves away from the coastal plain.

Dans un contexte d’inscription de l’habitat français contemporain dans une pratique durable, il s’agit de s’interroger sur les conceptions alternatives actuellement mises en œuvre, à savoir la géobiologie et le fengshui. Deux perspectives sont adoptées : les pratiques professionnelles et les représentations de la relation environnement-humain. Quelles sont les pratiques professionnelles et les représentations de la relation de l’environnement à l’humain dans l’habitat des praticiens de la géobiologie, du fengshui et de la démarche environnementale ? Que peuvent nous dire ces conceptions traditionnelles de l’habitat de la démarche environnementale dominante ? Quelles perméabilités existent éventuellement entre ces pratiques ?Deux situations se dessinent a priori : les praticiens de la géobiologie et du fengshui développeraient une vision holiste à tendance moniste de la relation de l’environnement à l’humain, tandis que les architectes de la démarche environnementale en auraient une vision plus naturaliste. L’enquête menée pour explorer cette hypothèse repose sur trois principaux corpus : 45 entretiens de praticiens, l’analyse de 18 ouvrages de référence et de 9 projets architecturaux, tous issus des trois conceptions de l’habitat étudiées.Des parcours biographiques en rupture pour des pratiques quasi-professionnelles de la géobiologie et du fengshui, des représentations variées de l’environnement et de l’humain déclinées autour de grandes figures, et l’apparition de « transferts » de représentations à l’origine de la définition de modes d’être au monde qualitatifs et éthiques, ou « habitabilités », sont les principaux résultats de cette recherche. Jusqu’ici angles morts de la recherche contemporaine en tant que conceptions de l’habitat, la géobiologie et le fengshui constituent sans doute des phénomènes qui nous permettent de questionner la production architecturale et urbaine contemporaine, et plus largement notre écologie. C’est l’objectif ultime de cette recherche, qui mobilise des apports issus de différents champs de la sociologie, tout en proposant un regard pluridisciplinaire au service de la définition d’une philosophie de l’habiter et d’une socio-anthropologie de l’habitat. / Today, as french housing is becoming « sustainable », it is time to question ourselves about the practice of alternative conceptions, like geobiology and fengshui. Two points of view are at stake : professional pratices and representations of the relation between environment and human being. What are this practices and representations developed by geobiology and fengshui practioners ? What can these traditional conceptions tell us about the prevalent environmental approach ? Which connexions possibly exist between them ?Two situations seem to shap : the geobiology and fengshui practitioners would have a holist and monist perception of the environment-humain being relation, while the architects of the environmental approach would have a naturalist one. Three main corpus compound the empirical research : 45 interviews with practitioners, an analysis of 18 reference books, and an analysis of 9 archtectural projects, all coming from the three housing conceptions studied.Rupture biographic paths and near professional practices for the geobiology and fengshui, varied representations of environment and human being clustered around big types, existence of a « transfer » phenomenon wich leads to the definition of qualititve ad ethical ways of being, or « habitabilities », are the main results of this reseach. Geobiology and fengshui are certainly able to interrogate architectural and urban production, as our ecology. It was the final goal of this reseach, which lies on diferent sociology fields, and tries to propose a multidsciplinary look which aimes at the definition of a philosophy of live-in and a socio-anthropology of housing.

The housing problem in South Africa is complicated by the cultural diversity and the rapidly changing nature of the population. This indicates a need for research to help to determine "what appropriate housing is" for various sectors of the South African population. Social researchers and design professionals therefore have to combine their efforts to provide house designs that will be appropriate to the housing needs and values of a variety of future occupants. This study focuses on the impact of rapid change in the sociophysical environment (modernization) on people's experience of the quality of their relationship with their home environments. An approach is proposed through which groups of individuals, who share similar needs and requirements regarding their housing, can be identified for inclusion in a process of participatory design. A theoretical framework is developed to account for the variety of perspectives of participants (users, researchers and design professionals) in the design process. Through application of the theoretical framework, a novel approach to the determination of "what to design for whom" is developed. The "modernity fit" concept is introduced to describe the quality of the relationship between people and their housing in terms of a rating of the modernity of both human and housing characteristics. It is proposed that the quality of the relationship or "fit" between the modernity of human characteristics and the modernity of the physical characteristics of the house influences people's experience of their houses. Results of this study indicate that the "modernity fit" concept opens up new avenues for research to assist in the design of housing in developing countries. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

En 2014, quel est le « sens de l’habiter »? L’évolution de la législation française engendre un processus de marchandisation du logement social, déjà amorcé. « Grands ensembliers » et professionnels du logement s’associent pour développer une nouvelle offre d’habitat social à destination des classes moyennes intermédiaires. La montée des classes moyennes mondiales et la crise économique produit des modes de consommer différenciés et une demande de logements prenant en considération de nouvelles tendances sociétales. Le regain d’intérêt depuis les années 2000 pour l’habitat alternatif (notamment le cohousing), positionne l’innovation dans l’habitat dans une démarche de co-construction (constructeur, architecte, sociologue). Ces effets de contexte s’inscrivent dans une démarche compréhensive de la diversité des pratiques habitants des classes moyennes. L’hétérogénéité de ce groupe social, à travers des modes de vie pluriels, illustre le déploiement de stratégies et de choix résidentiels qui rendent compte d’un rapport à l’autre singulier, d’un rapport au monde spécifique ; dont les « grands ensembliers » s’essaient à en saisir le sens et la complexité. / In 2014, what is the "sense of living"? The evolution of French legislation creates a social housing commodification process already begun. "Large contractors" and housing professionals join forces to develop a new offer of social housing to intermediate middle class. The rise of the global middle class and the economic crisis produces differentiated patterns of consumption and housing demand considering new societal trends. The renewed interest since the 2000s for alternative housing (including cohousing) positions innovation in housing in a co-construction approach (builder, architect, sociologist). These context effects are part of a comprehensive approach to the diversity of the inhabitants of the middle class practices. The heterogeneity of this social group, through plural lifestyles, illustrates the deployment strategies and residential choices that reflect a singular relative to each other, a report to the specific world; whose "big contractors" is trying to grasp the meaning and complexity.

En 2014, quel est le « sens de l’habiter »? L’évolution de la législation française engendre un processus de marchandisation du logement social, déjà amorcé. « Grands ensembliers » et professionnels du logement s’associent pour développer une nouvelle offre d’habitat social à destination des classes moyennes intermédiaires. La montée des classes moyennes mondiales et la crise économique produit des modes de consommer différenciés et une demande de logements prenant en considération de nouvelles tendances sociétales. Le regain d’intérêt depuis les années 2000 pour l’habitat alternatif (notamment le cohousing), positionne l’innovation dans l’habitat dans une démarche de co-construction (constructeur, architecte, sociologue). Ces effets de contexte s’inscrivent dans une démarche compréhensive de la diversité des pratiques habitants des classes moyennes. L’hétérogénéité de ce groupe social, à travers des modes de vie pluriels, illustre le déploiement de stratégies et de choix résidentiels qui rendent compte d’un rapport à l’autre singulier, d’un rapport au monde spécifique ; dont les « grands ensembliers » s’essaient à en saisir le sens et la complexité. / In 2014, what is the "sense of living"? The evolution of French legislation creates a social housing commodification process already begun. "Large contractors" and housing professionals join forces to develop a new offer of social housing to intermediate middle class. The rise of the global middle class and the economic crisis produces differentiated patterns of consumption and housing demand considering new societal trends. The renewed interest since the 2000s for alternative housing (including cohousing) positions innovation in housing in a co-construction approach (builder, architect, sociologist). These context effects are part of a comprehensive approach to the diversity of the inhabitants of the middle class practices. The heterogeneity of this social group, through plural lifestyles, illustrates the deployment strategies and residential choices that reflect a singular relative to each other, a report to the specific world; whose "big contractors" is trying to grasp the meaning and complexity.