Housing inequality, Precariat and Capability

This research proposal is designed to examine the housing inequality that the precariat is facing, through the lens of the capability approach. The research will focus on European workers in non-standard employment amongst various precariat groups. The precariat emerged with the changing economies structure and has been facing different types of housing inequality. They are not necessarily resource-wise poor, but often have limited opportunities (capabilities) to reside in a way that they have reason to value. For understanding this challenge, the research uses the capability approach as the main theoretical framework. The core argument of the capability approach is that the primary focus of understanding poverty and well-being should be the capabilities (real opportunities) of individuals, neither resources (such as income, wealth, basic goods, and housing units) nor utility (such as desire fulfilment and housing satisfaction). The capability approach is getting attention from housing and social policy researchers as an alternative framework for understanding inequality and social justice matter. The increasing awareness of the problems of housing inequality has triggered the researchers for reviewing traditional discourses on housing and welfare policy. However, the practical applicability of the capability approach is yet in a debate. This research proposal expects to contribute to this emerging debate as well through a case study, and to test to what extent the capability approach can provide a different insight into housing inequality problems and welfare policy implications