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House price Keynesianism and the contradictions of the modern investor subject

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Watson, Matthew (2010) House price Keynesianism and the contradictions of the modern investor subject. Housing Studies, Vol.25 (No.3). ISSN 0267-3037

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Abstract

This article conceptualises the marked downturn in UK house prices in the 2007-2009 period in relation to longer-term processes of national economic restructuring centred on a new model of homeownership. The structure of UK house prices has been impacted markedly by the Labour Government‟s efforts to ingrain a particular notion of financial literacy amid the move towards an increasingly asset-based system of welfare. New model welfare recipients and new model homeowners have thereby been co-constituted in a manner consistent with a new UK growth regime of „house price Keynesianism‟. However, the investor subjects who drive such growth are necessarily rendered uncertain as compared with the idealised image of Government policy because of their reliance on the credit-creating decisions of private financial institutions. The recent steep decline in UK house prices is explained here as an epiphenomenon of the disruptive effect on the idealised image caused by the dependence of investor subjects on pricing dynamics not of their making.

Item Type:

Submitted Journal Article

Subjects:

H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory

Divisions:

Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

Housing -- Prices -- Great Britain, Keynesian economics, Asset allocation -- Great Britain, Welfare economics -- Great Britain, Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1997-

Journal or Publication Title:

Housing Studies

Publisher:

Routledge

ISSN:

0267-3037

Official Date:

May 2010

Dates:

Date	Event
May 2010	Published

Volume:

Vol.25

Number:

No.3

Identification Number:

10.1080/02673031003711550

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Access rights to Published version:

Restricted or Subscription Access

Funder:

Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)

Grant number:

RES-000-22-2198 (ESRC)

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