In Place(s) of Fear: Towards a Sociology of Housing, Home and Fear

Gurney, C. (2023) In Place(s) of Fear: Towards a Sociology of Housing, Home and Fear. Housing Studies Association Annual Conference, Sheffield, UK, 29-31 March 2023.

Abstract

This paper reports ongoing work on housing and fear from a zemiological (or social harm) perspective. It critically reviews the extant social science literature on fear; identifies points of correspondence with housing studies and proposes a conceptual typology of housing and fear from which a speculative agenda for further research is suggested. The paper takes as it’s starting point an engagement with Giddens’ work on ontological security and existential anxiety (1991 pp 35-69); Tudor’s identification of the macro-sociological “parameters of fear” (2002) and Pain and Smith’s conceptualisation of the materialities, spatialities, experiences and practices of fear (2008). Moving beyond contested definitions of fear as an emotion; a culture; an experience and a discourse, the paper considers ways in which a more sophisticated understanding of fear in and of housing could be developed and applied. Further developing earlier work which framed home as a place of harm, I argue that home can be understood as a place where fear is experienced, but also that the materialities, systems and structures of housing and neighbourhoods are sources of social harm which may be feared. The experience, structures and practice of these fears constitute the subject matter of the sociology of housing, home and fear. Five themes for further research are suggested: 1. Experiences (in the home): fear of Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence and Coercive Control, loneliness and isolation; 2. Materialities (of the home): fear of falling, burglary; fears of the health consequences of damp, mould or cold; 3. Economic precarity: fear of rent and mortgage arrears; homelessness; eviction; displacement; negative equity and so on; 4. Punishment: fear of retaliatory evictions or of micro-aggressions in shared households; 5. Othering: Moral Panics, cultures of fear surrounding “problem” landlords (and tenants); of marginal communities and groups, “the problem estate”.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gurney, Dr Craig
• Authors: Gurney, C.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies

Related URLs

• Organisation