Housing and hegemony: the US experience

This paper examines the historical evolution of housing in the context of US capitalism, highlighting the significance of homeownership as an ideology and social practice for the reproduction of hegemony in the USA. The paper challenges widely held views that identify public policy errors and government regulatory failures as primary causes of the recent housing boom and bust. Its purpose is to show how the subprime solution that triggered the housing collapse organically evolved out of the growth imperative to keep harnessing the socioeconomic benefits of homeownership. The demise of this model signals the failure of the profit-seeking system of privatized housing provision to overcome the limits of production based on capital. Keywords housing, hegemony, Americanism and Fordism, Gramsci, USA, subprime mortgage crisis
Introduction Ever since the 1930s, housing has represented an area of paramount social and economic importance in the USA. Homeownership was central to the particular model of capitalism forged in [...]