On Housing Inequalities, Struggles and Solidarities Across Tenures

Susan Smith and Gavin Wood advance a new framework to understand inequalities and class struggles rooted in housing, proposing a focus on the edges of owner-occupation. They root their contribution in contemporary housing transformations under rentier capitalism, in which housing increasingly functions as a vehicle for generating rents and accumulating wealth. In this commentary, we offer a three-fold critical reflection on their paper. First, we question whether a focus on “the edges” indeed illuminates, or in fact obfuscates the dynamics of housing-based inequalities. Second, we speculate whether rentier capitalism will propel new class solidarities between owner-occupiers and renters. Third, we propose a stronger focus on the relevance of context and spatial scale to understand housing-based inequalities.