This book demonstrates how housing systems are built from political struggles over the distribution of welfare and wealth. The contributors analyze varieties of residential capitalism through a range of international case studies, as well as investigating the links between housing finance and the current international financial crisis.

Varieties of Residential Capitalism and the Politics of Housing Market Crashes; H.M.Schwartz & L.Seabrooke Housing, Global Finance and American Hegemony: Building Conservative Politics One Brick at a Time; H.M.Schwartz Constituting Monetary Conservatives via the 'Savings Habit': The Incorporation of the Ongoing British Housing Market Bubble into a System of Asset-Based Welfare; M.Watson The Social Consequences of Neoliberalism: The Politics of Property Booms in New Zealand; A.Broome The Bubble, Bust and More Boom: The Political Economy of Housing in Norway; B.S.Tranøy Housing as Social Right or Means to Wealth? The Fallout of Property Booms in Australia and Denmark; J.L.Mortensen & L.Seabrooke Residential Capitalism in Italy and the Netherlands; M.B.Aalbers The New Politics of Housing: Lessons from Real Estate Developers and Housing Policies in France and Spain since the 1980s; J.Pollard Origins and Consequences of the US Subprime Crisis; H.M.Schwartz Conclusion: The Politics and Policy of the Housing Market Crash; H.M. Schwartz & L.Seabrooke Notes Index Bibliography

HERMAN SCHWARTZ is Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, USA. A prolific author, his most recent book is Subprime Nation: American Power, Global Capital and the Housing Bubble. His other publications include Dominions of Debt and States versus Markets.

LEONARD SEABROOKE is Professor in International Political Economy in the Department of Politics and International Studies, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Globalization and Regionalization, at the University of Warwick, UK. His book publications include The Social Sources of Financial Power, US Power in International Finance, Global Standards of Market Civilization (with Brett Bowden) and Everyday Politics of the World Economy (with John M. Hobson).