Asian women and housing : the potential for community action

Abstract

The thesis presents a study of the Asian community in Govanhill, focussing on the extent to which Asian women are disadvantaged in their access to public housing. Discussion takes place at three levels: documentation of individual housing histories; examination of the institutional obstacles to housing access; analysis of the structural factors of race, class and gender which combine to restrict access to housing. In the second part, there is an analysis of the bases on which social mobilisation may or may not take place. Essentially, the debate is whether identification of collective interests is likely to take place on the bases of race, class, or gender, rather than on the basis of consumption of resources, particularly housing. A range of collective action in Govanhill is documented, and analysed in relation to these questions of identity and interests, and particularly in relation to the question of housing class.