Holistic housing pathways in Australia and Britain

Spallek, M. and Washbrook, E. Holistic housing pathways in Australia and Britain.

Further details

This paper compares the typical pathways in the housing transitions of families in Australia and Britain where housing tenure transitions are embedded into sequences of life-events. Sequences are derived using ten waves of data from highly comparable household panel studies in each of the two countries, focusing on the sample of families of childbearing age with and without children under the age of 18 years. The key life-events considered are birth of first or consecutive child, union formation and dissolution and changes in employment for adults. The technique of multi-channel sequence analysis is used to group similar sequences of changing housing status as they occur alongside other key life-events, and hence identifies a typology of housing pathways. Different clusters of sequences indicate different housing experiences associated with demographic characteristics.

Sociological research has previously shown how life course transitions such as getting married, having a child, and getting a new job influence the likelihood of a change in tenure status. Relationship formation and birth of children have been found as the main triggers for a housing transition. In recent times, these life-events have become less predictable due to underlying changes related to the acceptance of social circumstances: the social expectation to marry has declined, and there are now several other socially acceptable alternatives to traditional marriage, including cohabiting, single life and same sex relationships. The birth of the first child as a trigger for housing transition loses its certainty with large proportions of women in both Australia and Britain predicted to be childless in the future, whereas on the other hand getting divorced is increasing in its importance in relation to housing transitions.

Many authors have previously used event history analysis to analyse time until an event occurs, such as time until tenure status changes. However, the focus is on the transition itself, detaching it from past and future events. Sequence analysis on the other hand considers the whole sequence of events, putting the transitions into context. In reality, people deal with multiple roles simultaneously and one single sequence cannot capture an actual insight into the life course. Hence, more than one sequence needs to be observed in parallel over the same period of time to explain an individual’s life experience. To better understand patterns of housing tenure transitions, it is crucial to also examine the interrelationships with transitions in other key life events such as marital status, presence and age of children and employment status. This acknowledges the principle of linked lives which emphasises that individuals are making active decisions and active choices based on opportunities and so create their own pathway, which is the basic principle of the life course approach. Some writers have referred to the approach that analyses multiple interrelated pathways as 'holistic' pathways.

The decision to undertake a housing transition is also based on opportunities in terms of availability and accessibility of suitable housing and financial resources, as well as household type and lifestyle choices. The distribution of labour market skills and structure of the economy, and the nature of the housing and financial markets, will all shape the pathways that individuals follow over the life course The comparison between Australia and the UK is informative because it helps to untangle which of the main life course pathways are context-specific and which are common to both countries. In many ways the UK and Australia are similar – they share a common cultural heritage and are market economies with relatively strong welfare systems. There are, however, clear differences in terms of physical geography, population density, the historical timing of urban development and the immigrant composition the population. The extent to which types of life course trajectories differ in the two countries gives an indication of the relative importance of national contexts versus broader global trends.