The potential for eviction is an ordinary condition of domestic life for many in Europe and North America. This poses a challenge to anthropological theories of the state's presence in ordinary homes, which have accounted for public housing and mass displacement, but not liberalized settings where the state has ostensibly withdrawn from the home. Studies of housing precarity identify state policy and capitalist transformation among its sources, but the consequences of housing precarity for domesticity itself have not been fully explored. Private renters on a housing estate in southern England responded to the bleak prospect of eviction with home‐making pursuits that would instil a sense of optimism in their homes, including mortgage‐based ownership and immersive home entertainment technology. By examining the interplay between fears of eviction and home‐making aspirations, this article argues that the British state's organization of legitimate coercion has a subtle but significant influence on tenants’ ethical visions of what constitutes a good home.

中文翻译：

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蛇和梯子：英格兰南部的法律强制，住房不稳定和家庭志向

驱逐的可能性是欧洲和北美许多人家庭生活的一般条件。这对国家存在于普通住房中的人类学理论构成了挑战，这些理论已经解释了公共住房和大规模流离失所的问题，但并未使国家表面上从住房中撤出的自由化环境。住房危机的研究在其来源中确定了国家政策和资本主义的转变，但是住房危机对家庭本身的影响尚未得到充分探讨。英格兰南部某住宅区的私人租房者通过对住房的追求来应对惨淡的驱逐前景，这些追求将使他们的房屋充满乐观感，包括基于抵押的所有权和沉浸式家庭娱乐技术。