Tenure Security and Positive Freedom in Social Housing. Tenants’ Subjective Experiences in the Ambiguous Case of Oslo

Abstract

In this article, I discuss social housing tenants’ subjective experiences of tenure security and freedom in a housing regime characterized by strong market-orientation and means-testing. Based on thematic analysis of qualitative interviews, I argue that some tenants experience social housing as a haven of stability, whereas others regard it as a source of insecurity that prevents the realization of real personal freedom. These divergent personal experiences reflect the ambiguity of social rented housing in Oslo, a form of housing that for all its market- orientation and means-testing still provides relatively stable long-term homes for many social tenants. By highlighting the link between security and freedom this paper contributes to ongoing theoretical debates in housing studies. The main argument of the paper is that there is a strong connection between the dominant power of local government landlords in highly means-tested social housing, restricted tenure security, and the limited positive freedom of social housing tenants in contexts where the latter have few decent alternatives in the private housing market.