This book provides the first coherent Marxist analysis of the central importance of housing in the social reproduction of capitalism as a whole. Rather than consigning housing to the sidelines, Berry argues that the circulation of capital and revenues though housing and the built environment helps explain how the capital-labour relation constrains housing outcomes while also being reproduced on an extended scale. He shows how housing is provided by the intervention of building, property and interest-bearing capital fractions; how the land question can be explained by a theory of urban land rent, drawing on Marx's categories of differential and monopoly rent; how housing is vital to the extended reproduction of labour power, while also creating a semi-separate sphere of 'home' in which gender and demographic factors overlay and accentuate social class position. The modes, impact and drivers of state intervention in housing provision are seen to modify the patterns and pace of capital circulation through housing and the urban built environment with implications for shifts in class fragmentation and power relations.

Explains increasing financialization of capitalism and the vicious cycles between housing and the broader economy Provides a coherent Marxist analysis of the central role of housing in advanced capitalism Explores potential spaces of resistance to the logic of capital inherent in the split between work and home

Autorentext
Mike Berry is Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy in the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University, Australia.

Inhalt
Chapter 1: Introduction: Building from First Principles.- Part I: Housing as a Commodity.- Chapter 2: Housing as a use value.- Chapter 3: The Production of Housing.- Chapter 4: The Realisation of Housing.- Part II: Housing as a Land-use.- Chapter 5: The Territorial Imperative.- Chapter 6: The Theory of Urban Land Rent.- Chapter 7: Landed Property: An Historical Excursion.- Part III: Housing and Social Reproduction.- Chapter 8: The Extended Reproduction of Labour Power.- Chapter 9: The Social Construction of the Home 1: Culture.- Chapter 10: The Social Construction of the Home 2: Gender and Age.- Chapter 11: Housing and Class in the neoliberal Era.- Part IV: Housing and the State.- Chapter 12: Housing and the Myth of the 'Free Market'.- Chapter 13: Housing, Wealth and Power.- Chapter 14: The Housing Macro Nexus.- Part V: Navigating the Future.- Chapter 15: The Project: Architect Not Bee.- Chapter 16: Countering the Counter-Attack.- Chapter 17: Concluding Comments The Limits to Capital.