Using the pathways approach to uncover the social effects of involuntary home moves

Darren Baxter, The University of Yorkdjgb500@york.ac.uk

Project aims

1. Conceptual definition of an involuntary home move

2. Incidence of involuntary home moves

3. The effect of involuntary home moves

Outline

• What is an involuntary home move

• Overview of literature review (so far)

• Employing the pathways approach

What is an involuntary home move?

• Binary vs. scalar

Voluntary Involuntary

What is an involuntary home move?

• Considerations

– Temporal– Different levels in household– Agency– External context– Attitude

What is an involuntary home move?

Conceptualising involuntary home moves

-10

+10+10

Choice exercised over the move

Extent to which the move was caused by an

external factor

-10

-10 wholly involuntary+10 wholly voluntary

Literature review

• Diverse– No single involuntary home moves literature– Multiple backgrounds– Quantitative and qualitative– Multiple focusses

0 08 2 4x 6 75 access accessing activites anxiety associated benefits care caused

change children choice contact decision decline decrease depression

desire difficulty distress due effects emotional end

environment evidence factors families feeling feelings freedom

functioning generally greater health higher households

housing identity impact improvement increase increased initially isolation lack life likely liklihood

limited living location loss lower making mental mixed

mortality move moves moving need negative

neighbourhood networks neutral new number perception physical positive post practical privacy process rather

quality related religious satisfaction sense

short significant size social statistically stress style

subjective support term terms uncertainty upward worries

Pathways approach

• What is the pathways approach?– Clapham (2005)– Housing histories– Social constructionist view

Pathways approach cont.

• Why? What value?

• “A key contribution provided by the life course model is the recognition that individual biographies are strongly conditioned by the sequence and contexts within which life events are experience”

• Coulter and van Ham (2013:1040)

Pathways approach cont.

• Context noted by a number of authors as important when moving out of SRS due to clearance and redevelopment

– (Lelevrier, 2013, Kleinhams, 2003; Kleinhams and Bouma-Doff, 2008, Oakley and Burchfield, 2009, Posthumus et al, 2009,Walker, 2014 Kearns and Mason, 2013 and Fang, 2006)

• Lelevrier (2013) – 3 types of mover

– Older working class families: neutral move, choice due to area knowledge and contacts

– Vulnerable households and large immigrant families: Neutral or downward moves - lack of choice due to the need to minimise rent

– Small working households: Upward move - lots of choice as a desirable tenant

How to operationalise?

• Sequence analysis• Is useful for looking at life course data (Halpin, 2011)• Looks at the transition between states (Ham, 2013)

• Allows for the creation of ‘typical’ pathways which can be used as variables in the analysis of the effect of moving.

References• Coulter, R and van Ham, M (2013) Following people through time: An analysis of involuntary mobility

biographies, Housing Studies, 28 (7) 1037-1055• FANG, Y., 2006. Residential Satisfaction, Moving Intention and Moving Behaviours: A Study of

Redeveloped Neighbourhoods in Inner-City Beijing. Housing Studies, 21(5), pp. 671-694. • Halpin, B (2011) Simulating sequences. Talk – 14 OCT 2013 – Universite Paris• Ham, S (2013) Social Sequence analysis: An overview. Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=9WJPook9Qsc – 09/04/2014• KEARNS, A. and MASON, P., 2013. Defining and Measuring Displacement: Is Relocation from Restructured

Neighbourhoods Always Unwelcome and Disruptive? Housing Studies, 28(2), pp. 177-204.• Kleinhams, R. (2003) Dispalced but still moving upwards in the housing career? Implications of foced

residential relocation in the Netherlands, Housign Studies, 18(4) 473-499• KLEINHANS, R. and BOUMA-DOFF, W., 2008. On Priority and Progress: Forced Residential Relocation and

Housing Chances in Haaglanden, the Netherlands. Housing Studies, 23(4), pp. 565-587.• Oakley, D and Burchfield, K (2009). Out of the projects, still in the hood: The spatial constraints on public-

housing residents’ relocation in Chicago. Journal of Urban Affairs. 31 (5) 589-614• Posthumus, H, Bolt, G, Kempen, R.V. (2014) Victims or Victors? The Effects of Forced Relocations On

Housing Satisfaction In Dutch Cities. Journal of Urban Affairs. 36 (1) 13-32• Walker, L (2014) Resident Responses to Section 8 Relocation Outcomes: 'If You're Gonna Move, Yu Want

to Move up" Journal of Evidence Based Social Work 11 (1-2) 97-113