The value of housing: a political economy and social accounting approach

This project seeks to develop an innovative understanding of the current housing crisis by using value concepts from political economy, a dialogical theory of communication and social accounting practices. This project will apply the exchange/use value contradiction to housing, expressing this contradiction in a dialogic (multiple-voiced) form of social accounting. In empirical terms the project aims to develop a dialogical social account of social housing in conjunction with the civil society campaign groups. This will lead to theoretical developments for refocusing the social accounting project as tool for enhancing democratic interactions and emancipatory possibilities.

This project seeks to draw out the links between exchange values and traditional financial (monological) accounting forms on one side and, use values and dialogical social accounting forms on the other. The project aims to move from one form to another through a series of iterative interactions with civil society stakeholders. The ultimate aim of this work is to enhance the communicative capacity of civil society stakeholders in democratic interactions with housing providers and, in the process moving towards unlocking the emancipatory potential of social accounting.