Bence Kováts is holding a lecture on 12th November 2024 at John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, Social Science Research Colloquium Winter Term 2024/25
“Each child is a new outpost”: pronatalism in European housing policies in a long view
The presentation will examine the long-term trends in policy-making aimed at improving the housing conditions of families with children by drawing on a unique leximetric database covering 120 years of legislation in seven European countries. The talk will explore how political ideologies, shifting political priorities and path dependencies, have shaped policy-making in this area through an analysis of the variation in the type of measures. Housing policies for families with children have largely focused on increasing the birth rate by targeting large families and promoting home ownership, and have been situated within a broader conservative discourse surrounding the reinforcement of institutions of the family and private property, as well as nationalist fears of being outnumbered by rival nations or ethnic minorities. Some countries, however, have maintained more egalitarian approaches across regime changes.
