James Gregory 
Social Housing, Wellbeing and Welfare 

The growing demand for social housing is one of the most pressing public issues in the UK today, and this book analyses its role and impact.
Anchored in a discussion of different approaches to the meaning and measurement of wellbeing, the author explores how these perspectives influence our views of the meaning, value and purpose of social housing in today’s welfare state. The closing arguments of the book suggest a more universalist approach to social housing, designed to meet the common needs of a wide range of households, with diverse socioeconomic characteristics, but all sharing the same equality of social status.

Table of Content

1. Introduction: housing, wellbeing and welfare
PART I Meaning and purpose: discourses of social housing
2. Wellbeing: meaning and measurement
3. Discourses of dependency: social housing, welfare, and political debate
4. Counter-narratives: dependency, culture, and the myth of worklessness
PART II Social housing, wellbeing, and experiences of the home
5. Experiences of the home: place, identity, and security
6. Mental health, happiness, and satisfaction with life
PART III Rethinking the ‘social’ in social housing: common needs, shared identities
7. Social housing and welfare spheres
8. Rethinking the ‘social’ in social housing: common needs, shared identities

About the author

Dr James Gregory, Senior Research Fellow, Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management at the University of Birmingham James was previously Senior Research Fellow at the Fabian Society, where he first worked on housing policy, and prior to that completed a Ph D (political philosophy) at the London School of Economics. He is currently conducting empirical work on housing and wellbeing and contribute to teaching (housing studies) in the School of Social Policy.