Social Change, Intergenerational Dynamics and the Shaping of Housing Histories in Shanghai

Housing histories have been used in a number of contexts as a methodology to explore the impact of broader shifts in housing policy. Developments in housing policy will be refracted through individual and households experiences in housing systems. The timing of residential moves and the choices and constraints associated with these moves will coincide typically with key moments in the life- course such as leaving the parental home, job changes, the birth of children and general patterns of household formation and dissolution. Housing histories can also be a means through which to examine more general social and economic transformations. For example, major changes in housing policies will reflect more fundamental ideological developments, such as the influence of neo-liberal ideas. And periods of economic boom and bust are likely to have marked and differentiated generational and cohort impacts in relation to housing experiences and opportunities.Over the last half century or so, China has probably experienced more dramatic and fundamental changes than most other societies. Housing and family life have been embedded in a series of far-reaching societal changes, notably the communist victory of 1949, the period of the Cultural Revolution and the more recent drive towards a more market-oriented society with housing reforms at the forefront. This paper examines the way in which housing histories among families in Shanghai were shaped by these events and by their interaction with specific intergenerational dynamics. The paper draws on qualitative research carried out in Shanghai in 2008 which involved in depth interviews with individual members of three linked generations within families. The research provides a unique account of family housing histories over three generations against a particularly turbulent backcloth.