Housing Quality as Environmental Inequality: The Case of Wallonia, Belgium

Lejeune, Zoé; Xhignesse, Guillaume; Kryvobokov, Marko; Teller, Jacques

doi:10.1007/s10901-015-9470-5

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Housing Quality as Environmental Inequality: The Case of Wallonia, Belgium

Lejeune, Zoé; Xhignesse, Guillaume; Kryvobokov, Marko et al.

2016 • In Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 31 (3), p. 495-512

Peer reviewed

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/184219

DOI
10.1007/s10901-015-9470-5

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Keywords :

Environmental Inequality; Spatial Discrepancies; Housing Conditions

Abstract :

[en] First in the USA and then in many other countries, scholarship on environmental inequality has sought to shed light on the unequal environmental conditions borne by poor people and ethnic minorities, and to challenge public policies and their unjust impacts on those target groups. Housing quality, especially the indoor characteristics of homes, offers an innovative perspective in this field of research. In previous research on environmental inequality in the Walloon context, housing quality has been proven to be a major determinant of quality of life and environmental well-being. This paper analyses housing quality through a twofold approach: through indoor characteristics on the one hand, and outdoor subjective and objective externalities on the other. It reveals the disparities between the most deprived and the wealthiest segments of the population. The evidence for this study is based on a housing quality survey carried out in 2012 and 2013 on 6,018 households in Wallonia (Belgium). The key findings are that poor people are found to live in housing of lower quality, in densely populated neighbourhoods and those with mixed use, with compensating amenities provided at the local level. Moreover, consistent with environmental inequality scholarship, deprived households are found to bear the burden of environmental degradation outside the home. People live in areas with poorer air quality, but are found to benefit from greater access to green spaces. The results of the survey reveal an interesting point concerning the environmental inequality literature; the interior features of housing are found to differ more widely between deprived and wealthier people than the surrounding environment does.

Research Center/Unit :

Lepur : Centre de Recherche sur la Ville, le Territoire et le Milieu rural - ULiège
LEMA - Local Environment Management and Analysis

Disciplines :

Law, criminology & political science: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Architecture

Author, co-author :

Lejeune, Zoé ; Université de Liège > Département de science politique > Politique européenne

Xhignesse, Guillaume ; Université de Liège > HEC-Ecole de gestion : UER > Théorie monétaire et macroéconomie

Kryvobokov, Marko

Teller, Jacques ; Université de Liège > Département Argenco : Secteur A&U > Urbanisme et aménagement du territoire

Language :

English

Title :

Housing Quality as Environmental Inequality: The Case of Wallonia, Belgium

Publication date :

September 2016

Journal title :

Journal of Housing and the Built Environment

ISSN :

1566-4910

eISSN :

1573-7772

Publisher :

Springer, Heidelberg, Germany

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

495-512

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Funders :

IWEPS - Institut Wallon de l'Évaluation, de la Prospective et de la Statistique
F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique

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