Private landlords in Germany: Positions, attitudes and strategies in a privileged class

私人房东和女房东是德国租赁住房市场上最大的住房提供商群体。在任何其他西方国家，住房通常都是由私人提供的。然而，人们对私人房东知之甚少，即使在有关租金和能源价格上涨及其社会后果的公开辩论升温的时候也是如此。该项目解决了这一研究空白。指导原则是布尔迪欧的观点：我们将地主理解为特权阶级的成员，并询问他们的客观情况和主观定位。除了陈词滥调，我们感兴趣的是：1.就阶级状况而言，房东通常享有特权的经济资本与他们的文化和社会资本有什么关系？2)社会阶层和房东角色的起源与习惯性态度(如社会定位)以及告知的行为(如对待租客、投资行为、参加房东协会)有什么关系？哪些星座的条件是有特色的？如上所述，我们填补了对房地产市场主要参与者的研究空白。我们从社会学的角度探讨不平等现象，探讨中产阶级和上层阶级(小部分)之间的习惯性界限。在布迪厄的意义上，我们进一步考察了高收入群体和更多特权阶层之间的关系。由于可出租房地产是财富的重要组成部分，我们还旨在将住房社会学和不平等社会学联系起来。在经验上，我们使用混合方法阐明了研究主题。在进行了预备性的定量二次数据分析后，我们根据扎根理论进行了定性指导访谈。

Private landlords and landladies are the largest group of housing providers in the German rental housing market. In no other western country housing is that often provided by private individuals. Nevertheless, very little is known about private landlords, even in times of heating public debates about rising rents and energy prices and their social consequences. The project addresses this research gap. The guiding principle is a Bourdieusian perspective: we understand landlords as members of privileged classes and ask about their objective situations and subjective positioning. Beyond clichés (e.g., landlords as ‚rent sharks‘), we are interested in: 1. How is the usually privileged economic capital of landlords related to their cultural and social capital in terms of class situation? 2) How is the social class and the genesis of the landlord's role related to habitual attitudes (e.g., social positioning) as well as told behaviors (e.g., towards tenants, investment behavior, participation in landlord associations)? Which constellations of conditions are characteristic? With that said, we fill a research gap on a main actor in the housing market. We explore, from a sociological perspective on inequality, habitual demarcations at the interface between middle and upper classes (fractions). In the sense of Bourdieu, we furthermore investigate the relationship between high-income groups and more privileged classes. With rentable real estate as an important component of wealth, we also aim to link the sociology of housing and the sociology of inequality. Empirically we shed light on the research topic using mixed methods. After a preparatory quantitative secondary data analysis, we conduct qualitative guided interviews based on grounded theory.