Housing and identity: how place makes race

This opinion piece describes the interaction between ‘place’ and ‘race’, arguing that in more unequal societies race becomes a more salient issue. Highlighting the association between new migrants and geographical locations, such as Whitechapel, the paper argues that ‘minorities’ will often be defined by the location in which they live. The paper also provides a radical proposal for a ‘buy to sell’ policy. The paper argues that by giving ‘mortgagees the right to become tenants, and private tenants the right to become social housing tenants, without moving home’, in contrast to current market-driven policies in social housing, housing could be stabilised.

Sections:

• Housing inequalities in Britain
• How place makes race
• Race and housing
• The political geography of wealth in the USA
• The political geography of wealth in Britain
• Offering solutions
• The right-to-sell
• Right-to-sell in practice: MRS and MTR