Romanian suburban housing: home improvement through owner-building

Soaita, A. M. (2013) Romanian suburban housing: home improvement through owner-building. Urban Studies, 50(10), pp. 2084-2101. (doi: 10.1177/0042098012471980)

Abstract

The new suburban housing developments in post-socialist cities have been ubiquitous icons of socioeconomic and physical change. This paper examines suburban owner-built housing as a long-term strategy of home improvement in Romania. It analyses residents’ motivations and financial strategies to move up the housing ladder through owner-building and their responses to key neighbourhood problems, in particular poor public infrastructure and non-existent public facilities. It is argued that owner-builders generally benefitted from the economic informality, the relaxed legal culture and the unregulated housing context of the Romanian post-socialist transition; but the absence of public actors has weakened their achievements, which is most apparent at neighbourhood level. The paper draws attention to a context of politico-economic reforms and a set of socio-cultural values of housing privatism in which resident responses may frequently generate consequential (collective) problems localised at the level of streets, neighbourhoods or even the whole society.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Soaita, Dr Adriana Mihaela
• Authors: Soaita, A. M.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Urban Studies
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 0042-0980
• ISSN (Online): 1360-063X
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2013 Urban Studies Journal Limited
• First Published: First published in Urban Studies 50(10): 2084-2101
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy