Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Housing Stakeholders in the Recovery of the U.S. Housing Market

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Ms. Elizabeth Youngling, under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Orta of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will explore how networks of stakeholders work to redeem values diminished by economic crisis. In the wake of the mortgage crisis, the project asks how variously positioned housing stakeholders (realtors, mortgage bankers, housing counselors, and homeowners) come together to redeem the social and economic value of homeownership in the post-2008 economic environment. The research will be conducted in Chicago, Illinois, a city still struggling with the long-term effects of the mortgage crisis. Focusing on the daily practices of housing professionals and the homeowners they serve, the researcher will conduct twelve months of research at key sites in the production and promotion of homeownership: mortgage banks, realty offices, and housing organizations. Her research methods will include semi-structured interviews, participant observation, focus groups, and textual analysis of documents related to the history of homeownership in the United States since the Great Depression. By framing the housing market as a meeting point for different values, interests, and scales of action, the research explores the intersections between macro-level financial processes and their micro-level effects. The study will contribute to scholarship on the political and cultural economies of homeownership, social mobility, holistic understandings of social and economic value, and role of economic institutions in shaping everyday life. The broader impact of the project lies in its attention to the post-crisis reproduction and transformation of the U.S. housing market, which has been an essential component of U.S. economic prosperity and social mobility for over half a century. The research will inform our understanding of the inner workings of a key dimension of the U.S economy and society during a period of cultural, political, and economic change. The results will be made available to academic, practitioner, and general audiences.