Homeownership and suburbanisation are two sides of the same coin in the context of Australia. This thesis explores the housing system that facilitates homeownership under a framework of institutional path dependence and how that has facilitated spatial patterns of suburbanization in contemporary Melbourne. Australia has been considered a homeowner society for the larger part of the 20th century. Living and owning a house on a ‘quarter acre block’ in one of its major cities is said to have been a virtue even before homeownership was in reach for the majority of the Australian population. The years after WWII enabled up to 70 per cent of the population to access homeownership tenure. In that, this thesis analyses the institutional, societal and economic configurations that enabled increased homeownership provision, but also the historical processes that further facilitated a system around a dominant tenure. Path dependency theory, developed in the field of historical institutionalism, offers an analytical toolbox to examine long-term processes. In a broad sense, path dependency refers to the continuous reproduction of institutional systems in place. The second part of this thesis examines urbanisation processes in Melbourne, under a framework of institutional and spatial change. Cities are changing environments that, although, they inhabit determinist and reinforcing spatial patterns and institutions, transition over time. By looking at historical and contemporary institutional processes, this thesis examines metropolitan strategies to consolidate the outward growth in the city of Melbourne. Under the aspect of change, current challenges to the built environment are presented. A third analysis connects the macro discussion with a case study of a local housing provider in Melbourne, that in some regards may be viewed as antithesis to the contemporary building regime in the Australian and Melbourne context. As the first in-depth path dependency analysis in the Australian context, this thesis can be viewed as a contribution to the growing body of path dependency literature with a housing focus that also combines the spatial nature of urban environments.

Informal social networks have been established as instruments to combat poverty in slums, supplying the ineffectiveness of the State to provide basic assets necessary for the survival of its population. Under this logic, the Urbe research group developed, in “Conjunto Vitória” - Maceió-AL, a methodology for identifying social-spatial networks in order to legitimize them in the face of public housing policies. Inserted in this context, this dissertation aims to characterize the exchange relations that occur in socio-spatial networks that support the permanency in self-managed slums, it is a qualitative and descriptive research, with an exploratory character, in which was used the Case Study. As a criterion of choice of the empirical object of this study, was sought, among the total households surveyed by Urbe, one who possessed the most nominations and presented greater representation for the “Conjunto Vitória”. The Domicile 52D was presented in a position of centrality in the set and its sociability’s network was used for application of semi-structured interviews in order to get answers on the main questions of the research: the history of that occupation and the different levels of social interaction and exchanges relations that occur there. It is known that trust, equality shortages, lack of resources and residence’s proximity are important requirements for interactions in disadvantaged environments, in this way, the construction of habitus helps to understand the reasons why individuals helps each other in every day’s life. Thus, for the analysis and data’s interpretation, types of values described by Baudrillard were used to categorize, seeking to identify expressions in the interviewed person’s speeches that characterizes them. As a result, it was observed that the sociability’s network, of the Domicile studied, that relations of its participants can be governed by three types of values investigated by this research: Exchange Value, Symbolic Exchange and Sign Value. / Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Alagoas / As redes de sociabilidade informais têm se constituído como instrumentos de combate à pobreza em assentamentos precários, suprindo a ineficácia do Estado em conceder ativos básicos necessários para a sobrevivência de sua população. Sob esta lógica, o grupo de pesquisa Urbe desenvolveu, no Conjunto Vitória em Maceió-AL, uma metodologia para identificação de redes socieoespaciais a fim de legitimá-las frente às políticas públicas de habitação. Inserida nesse contexto, esta dissertação objetiva caracterizar as relações de troca que ocorrem em redes socioespaciais de apoio à permanência em assentamentos precários autogestionados, trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa e descritiva, de caráter exploratório, na qual foi utilizado o procedimento de Estudo de Caso. Como critério de escolha do objeto empírico deste trabalho, buscou-se, dentre a rede total de domicílios estudados pelo Urbe, aquele que possuísse o maior número de indicações e apresentasse maior representatividade para o Conjunto Vitória. O Domicílo 52D foi apresentado em condição de centralidade no conjunto e sua rede de sociabilidade foi utilizada para aplicação de entrevistas semiestruturadas, a fim de obter respostas sobre as principais questões da pesquisa: o histórico daquela ocupação e os diferentes níveis de interação social e relações de trocas que ali ocorrem. Sabe-se que a confiança, a igualdade de carências, a falta de recursos e a proximidade de residência são requisitos importantes para as interações em ambientes precários, neste sentido, a construção de habitus ajuda a entender as razões pelas quais indivíduos se ajudam na vida cotidiana. Desta forma, para a análise e interpretação dos dados, foi utilizado como critérios de categorização das relações de troca os tipos de valores descritos por Baudrillard, buscando identificar expressões nas falas dos entrevistados que os caracterizassem. Como resultado, observou-se que na rede de sociabilidade, do domicílio estudado, as relações de seus participantes podem ser regidas pelos três tipos de valores investigados por esta pesquisa: valor de troca, troca simbólica e valor de signo.

Since the onset of the global financial crisis, urban dwellers face an increasing number of obstacles in establishing themselves on the housing market. Against this backdrop, this paper addresses the variegated dynamics of real estate dispossession in the tourist conurbation Los Cristianos/Las Américas on an intra-urban scale. First, I will present the spatio-temporal patterns of dispossession for the period 2001–2015 using the ATLANTE database (CGPJ). Specifically, I analyze mortgage foreclosures and tenant evictions, both for residential and commercial spaces. Second, I delve deeper into local experiences of dispossession of the resident population and their housing and income conditions by means of questionnaires that I conducted in 2018. The data shows that mortgage foreclosures and dispossessions of residential spaces predominate the initial years after the crisis, albeit with varied spatial incidence. However, the increase in tenant evictions from 2014 onwards points to a reconfiguration of displacement dynamics. Indeed, as stated by the interviewees, staggeringly high rent burdens have become the main driver for displacement from both living and working spaces in recent years. Given the ongoing global pandemic, further and more nuanced research is necessary to grasp how these prevailing housing insecurities are shaped during and beyond the coronavirus crisis.

Informal social networks have been established as instruments to combat poverty in slums, supplying the ineffectiveness of the State to provide basic assets necessary for the survival of its population. Under this logic, the Urbe research group developed, in “Conjunto Vitória” - Maceió-AL, a methodology for identifying social-spatial networks in order to legitimize them in the face of public housing policies. Inserted in this context, this dissertation aims to characterize the exchange relations that occur in socio-spatial networks that support the permanency in self-managed slums, it is a qualitative and descriptive research, with an exploratory character, in which was used the Case Study. As a criterion of choice of the empirical object of this study, was sought, among the total households surveyed by Urbe, one who possessed the most nominations and presented greater representation for the “Conjunto Vitória”. The Domicile 52D was presented in a position of centrality in the set and its sociability’s network was used for application of semi-structured interviews in order to get answers on the main questions of the research: the history of that occupation and the different levels of social interaction and exchanges relations that occur there. It is known that trust, equality shortages, lack of resources and residence’s proximity are important requirements for interactions in disadvantaged environments, in this way, the construction of habitus helps to understand the reasons why individuals helps each other in every day’s life. Thus, for the analysis and data’s interpretation, types of values described by Baudrillard were used to categorize, seeking to identify expressions in the interviewed person’s speeches that characterizes them. As a result, it was observed that the sociability’s network, of the Domicile studied, that relations of its participants can be governed by three types of values investigated by this research: Exchange Value, Symbolic Exchange and Sign Value. / Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Alagoas / As redes de sociabilidade informais têm se constituído como instrumentos de combate à pobreza em assentamentos precários, suprindo a ineficácia do Estado em conceder ativos básicos necessários para a sobrevivência de sua população. Sob esta lógica, o grupo de pesquisa Urbe desenvolveu, no Conjunto Vitória em Maceió-AL, uma metodologia para identificação de redes socieoespaciais a fim de legitimá-las frente às políticas públicas de habitação. Inserida nesse contexto, esta dissertação objetiva caracterizar as relações de troca que ocorrem em redes socioespaciais de apoio à permanência em assentamentos precários autogestionados, trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa e descritiva, de caráter exploratório, na qual foi utilizado o procedimento de Estudo de Caso. Como critério de escolha do objeto empírico deste trabalho, buscou-se, dentre a rede total de domicílios estudados pelo Urbe, aquele que possuísse o maior número de indicações e apresentasse maior representatividade para o Conjunto Vitória. O Domicílo 52D foi apresentado em condição de centralidade no conjunto e sua rede de sociabilidade foi utilizada para aplicação de entrevistas semiestruturadas, a fim de obter respostas sobre as principais questões da pesquisa: o histórico daquela ocupação e os diferentes níveis de interação social e relações de trocas que ali ocorrem. Sabe-se que a confiança, a igualdade de carências, a falta de recursos e a proximidade de residência são requisitos importantes para as interações em ambientes precários, neste sentido, a construção de habitus ajuda a entender as razões pelas quais indivíduos se ajudam na vida cotidiana. Desta forma, para a análise e interpretação dos dados, foi utilizado como critérios de categorização das relações de troca os tipos de valores descritos por Baudrillard, buscando identificar expressões nas falas dos entrevistados que os caracterizassem. Como resultado, observou-se que na rede de sociabilidade, do domicílio estudado, as relações de seus participantes podem ser regidas pelos três tipos de valores investigados por esta pesquisa: valor de troca, troca simbólica e valor de signo.

This thesis presents research into the housing pathways of newcomers in Ireland who receive status to remain in the country and come through the Irish direct provision reception system. In the global context of financialisation of housing and local context of state reliance on the private market to provide housing to all sections of society, cities in Ireland are experiencing severe housing crises like many other cities across the globe, characterised by shortage, increasing rents and persistent homelessness rates. Meanwhile, in response to increased migration and heightened border anxieties, Ireland has sought to deter forced migrants, in this case with dispersed and unattractive direct provision reception centres. What happens then to newcomers with status to remain in Ireland, an already particularly vulnerable group in the housing system, when they have to enter this system in crisis after year-long stays in dispersed reception centres? This thesis addresses this question, looking at the specific effects of the Irish housing regime, with its unique local and recognisable global characteristics, and Irish reception policy, with its particular direct provision system, on newcomers’ search for housing. For context, the historical development and current features of the Irish housing regime, as well as migration and reception policy are traced and outlined. The thesis then tracks previous literature from international and Irish settings that deals with the issue of housing for newcomers in the Global North, including the historical development of the field and its current trends. The research design makes use of a cross-sectional, mixed-method approach to achieve its objectives. Using a constructionist housing pathways framework of analysis, accompanied by important concepts from thinkers such as Lefebvre, Agamben and Bengtsson & Borevi, the research draws on a mixture of surveys and follow-up interviews to examine the constraints, structures, strategies and outcomes of households when they have been granted status to remain in Ireland and must leave reception centres and find their own housing. The research identifies identity and power as two crucial factors in the navigation of housing pathways for newcomers and shows the detrimental effect of the retreat of the state from housing provision and reliance on marketised social housing provision on the right to housing for this group. Finally, the thesis recommends potential future studies and the policy implications of the research, in light of the difficulties of finding housing through the HAP scheme reported in this research, urge caution for proposed further reliance on marketised social housing provision for newcomers.