📖 Second-hand book "Protecting Housing" [80% new]

Protect the home, not the property.

********************Editor's recommendation********************

Everyone needs housing, but not everyone can get safe, stable and decent housing. Especially for low-income people, their housing rights are often difficult to guarantee. In capitalist countries, the housing crisis is particularly profound. The book "Defending Housing" analyzes the causes of the housing crisis under the capitalist system in clear and easy-to-understand language.

Unlike most scholars who regard the housing problem as a purely economic issue, David Madden and Peter Marcuse inherited Engels's discussion on the housing problem, revealing the social and political attributes of housing, and calling for the protection of housing as a home rather than housing as real estate. Recognizing the housing problem in capitalist countries will help us improve related research and policies. For experts such as housing scholars, housing policy researchers, urban planners and researchers, this book can provide new ideas. For advocates and decision makers of affordable housing, this book can provide some theoretical support.

********************Content Introduction********************

"Defending Housing" analyzes the root causes of the housing crisis under the capitalist system from the perspective of Marxist political economy. The author believes that housing, as a commodity, has use value and exchange value, but under the domination of capital, housing has been over-commodified, and its function as a tool for wealth accumulation has gradually increased, while its function as a residential facility has gradually weakened. The excessive commercialization of housing has brought about a series of social problems and also spawned housing alienation and various oppressions.

The housing crisis under capitalism is a systemic crisis, an inevitable result of the operation of the housing system itself, and cannot be solved by policy tinkering. If the working class wants to gain housing rights amid this oppression, it cannot rely on the government’s benevolent measures, but must promote change through struggle and action, and fundamentally transform the political and economic structure.

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