| No Place Like Home: Wealth, Community and the American Dream
Presentation by: Wednesday, May 6
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| Preinkert Field House – Conference Room 1112V University of Maryland College Park |
Summary
For decades, the promise of homeownership in the United States has focused on the importance of housing as a financial investment and the role that homeownership plays in building communities. On one hand, Americans hold more wealth in their homes than they do in any other investments. At the same time, we have long believed that the owner-occupied home is the centerpiece of upstanding citizenship and strong communities. In No Place Like Home, McCabe asks how the importance of building wealth through housing shapes the way homeowners engage in their communities. Often, as a way of protecting their property values, homeowners work to increase segregation and economic isolation in their neighborhoods, raising doubts about the civic benefits of owning a home. Investigating this core institution, No Place Like Home offers a new perspective on the place homeownership holds in American life.
BRIAN J. McCABE is an assistant professor of Sociology at Georgetown University. His previous research on housing, urban policy and public opinion has been published in Social Forces, City & Community, the Journal of Urban Affairs and the Journal of the American Planning Association. He is currently completing a book manuscript, titled No Place Like Home: Wealth, Community and the American Dream.