ABSTRACT

In Britain, the number of young single people living in shared accommodation is on the rise. While sharing may be positive when voluntarily chosen, those who are forced to share accommodation may have far more negative experiences. This paper examines how recent changes to the Shared Accommodation Rate of housing welfare have resulted in people having to share accommodation until the age of thirty-five. Our focus is on the experiences of young single women who are in receipt of housing benefit and are living on low or no income. The paper is based upon forty biographical interviews with people who have lived, or are living in, shared accommodation with strangers. It emphasises how, although having a roof over their heads, women living in shared accommodation often do not feel at home. Shared living resulted in domestic space being experienced not as a site of refuge, but as a place of insecurity and fear. The paper highlights how cuts to housing welfare have removed a vital infrastructure of care, leaving some young women in a position of heightened vulnerability. We hence propose that vulnerability should be conceptualised as a structural condition rather than an inherent gendered disposition.

摘要

在英国，住在合租公寓的年轻单身人数正在上升。虽然自愿选择共享可能是积极的，但那些被迫共享住宿的人可能会有更多的负面经历。本文研究了最近住房福利共享住宿费率的变化如何导致人们不得不在 35 岁之前共享住宿。我们的重点是领取住房福利并靠低收入或无收入生活的年轻单身女性的经历。该论文基于对与陌生人住过或正在住在一起的人进行的四十次传记访谈。它强调了虽然有一个屋顶在头上，但住在共用住所的妇女往往没有宾至如归的感觉。共同生活导致家庭空间不被体验为避难所，而是不安全和恐惧的地方。该文件强调了住房福利的削减如何消除了重要的护理基础设施，使一些年轻女性处于更加脆弱的境地。因此，我们建议将脆弱性概念化为一种结构性条件，而不是一种固有的性别倾向。