The Everyman archetype: discursive reframing of private landlords in the financialization of rental housing
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: This article investigates the politico-cultural processes underpinning the financialization of private rental housing. Exploring the case of Australia, it shows how debt-financed landlords have been discursively reframed as ‘mum and dad investors’ who are valorized politically as enterprising, self-reliant and providing essential housing. This article then critically appraises this depiction based on available secondary data, and finds that protagonists are, predominantly, midlife and older households with higher household incomes and higher wealth levels. Furthermore, deployment of an Everyman archetype is a politico-cultural device for normalizing this type of activity as part of the financialization of everyday life. Discursive reframing bolsters political and public support for investor-landlordism as an important contributor to asset-based welfare.
Source: Housing Studies
Authors: Kath Hulse, Margaret Reynolds, Chris Martin
Institutions: Swinburne University of Technology, UNSW Sydney
Language: English
Subfield: Finance
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2964894002