Dr Stuart Lowe 

Profile

Areas of expertise

• Housing Policy
• Comparative Welfare States
• Policy Analysis
• Housing and Social Theory

Academic biography

Stuart Lowe is a political scientist. He was trained at Sheffield University where he was awarded his doctorate for a study of urban social movements. He developed an interest in adult education and this brought him to a full-time post as tutor organiser for the Workers’ Educational Association during the late-1970s.

He came to the University of York in 1982 to develop his research interest in Housing Policy about which he has written extensively, especially on housing law, the history of British housing, housing policy, comparative housing (with a special focus on the post-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe) and on the connection between housing and the development of welfare states. The central theme of his work has been on the impact that the growth of home ownership has had on reshaping the welfare state in Britain and by extension the impact of housing on welfare states in a comparative context.

Professional activities

• External examiner at Nottingham University, University of Hull and Sheffield Hallam University.

Research

Research interests

• Housing and Social Theory
• Institutionalist methodology and theory
• Housing equity withdrawal and the privatization of welfare states
• History of UK housing policy

PhD supervision

Supervision interests:

• Housing policy (UK) and comparative housing
• Policy process

Current students:

• Yong-Chang Heo - Housing and welfare states in an East Asian context
• Tuan Nguyen - Housing reform in Vietnam
• Joanna Jones - Home ownership and asset-based welfare

Publications

Authored books

Lowe, S. (2011) The Housing Debate: Policy and Politics in the Twenty-First Century. Bristol, The Policy Press.

Hudson, J., Kühner, S. and Lowe, S. (2008) The Short Guide to Social Policy. Bristol, The Policy Press.

Hudson, J. and Lowe, S. (2004) Understanding the Policy Process: Analysing Welfare Policy and Practice. Bristol, The Policy Press. Second edition published 2009. Chinese translation published by Beijing University Press, 2009.

Lowe, S. (2004) Housing Policy Analysis: British Housing in Comparative and Cultural Context. Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Hughes, D. and Lowe, S. (2000) Public Sector Housing Law. London: Butterworths.

Hughes, D. and Lowe, S. (1995) Social Housing Law and Policy. Royal Quarto size. London, Butterworths.

Lowe, S. (1986) Urban Social Movements: The City After Castells (in the series: Sociology, Politics and the City). Houndmills and London, Macmillan.

Edited books

Hughes, D. and Lowe, S. (eds) (2007) The Private Rented Housing Market: Regulation or deregulation? Aldershot, Ashgate.

Lowe, S. and Tsenkova, S. (eds) (2003) Housing Change in East and Central Europe: Integration or Fragmentation? Aldershot, Ashgate.

Hughes, D. and Lowe, S. (eds) (2002) The Private Rented Sector in a New Century. Bristol, The Policy Press.

Lowe, S. and Hughes, D. (eds) (1991) A New Century of Social Housing. Leicester, Leicester University Press (Pinter Press).

Book chapters

Lowe, S. (2007) ‘Housing’ in The Encyclopaedia of Europe 1914 – 2000, Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group.

Lowe, S and Hughes, D. = (2007) Chapter Nine ‘Regulation or deregulation – a story of mixed messages’ in Hughes, D and Lowe S. (eds) The Private Rented Housing Market: Regulation or deregulation? Aldershot, Ashgate.

Lowe, S. (2007) The Private Rented Sector: Chapter One - Introduction in Hughes, D and Lowe S. (eds) The Private Rented Housing Market: Regulation or deregulation? Aldershot, Ashgate.

Lowe, S. (2004) ‘Too Poor to Move, Too Poor to Stay’ in Too Poor to Move, Too Poor to Stay, ed. Fearn, J. Local Government and Public Reform Initiative, Open Society Institute- Budapest.

Lowe, S. (2003) ‘The Private Rented Sector – Evidence form Budapest and Sofia’ in

S. Lowe and S.Tsenkova (eds) Housing Change in East and Central Europe: Integration or Fragmentation? Aldershot, Ashgate.

Lowe, S.(2003) ‘Introduction: Housing in Post-communist Europe – Issues and Agendas’ in S. Lowe and S.Tsenkova (eds) Housing Change in East and Central Europe: Integration or Fragmentation? Aldershot, Ashgate.

Lowe, S. and Hawtin, M. (=) (1998) ‘Frameworks for Resident Involvement’ in Resident Involvement and Community Action: Theory to Practice, eds M. Hawtin and C. Cooper, Chartered Institute of Housing, London, ISBN 1-900396-81-5.

Lowe, S. (1997) ‘Homes and Castles: Was it inevitable that Britain became a nation of home-owners?’ in Built to Last: Reflections on British Housing Policy’, (eds. J. Goodwin and C. Grant) London, Roof Magazine, Shelter.

Lowe, S. (1997) ‘Homelessness and the law’ in Burrows, R., Pleace, N and Quilgars, D. [eds] Homelessness and Social Policy, London, Routledge.

Lowe, S. (1997) ‘Tenants’ Participation in a Legal Context’ in Involving Residents: Theory and Policy in Practice eds M. Hawtin and C. Cooper, Chapter Five, London, Arena Press, ISBN 1 85742 341 0.

Lowe, S. (1997) ‘Homelessness in Britain and Bulgaria’ in Homelessness (ed) I Dandolova. Chapter Two. A Research Report of the Institute of Sociology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Lowe, S. (1994) ‘Towards a Theory of East European Housing’ eds T. Tanninen, I. Ambrose and O. Siksio, Transitional Housing Systems pp108-120, Dessau (Dresden), Bauhaus Dessau.

Lowe, S. (19920 ‘Housing in the UK’, UK Data Book pp94-97, London, Guiness Publishing.

Lowe, S. (19920‘Housing in Romania’, eds. B. Turner, J. Hegedus and I. Tosics, The Reform of Housing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, pp218-229, London, Routledge.

Lowe, S. (1992) ‘The social consequences of the growth of home ownership’, ed. J. Birchall, Housing in the 1990s pp68-90, London, Routledge.

Lowe, S and Hughes, D. (=) (199) ‘Retrospect and Prospect’ eds. S. Lowe and D. Hughes, A New Century of Social Housing pp175-190, Leicester, University of Leicester Press (Pinter Press).

Lowe, S. (1991) ‘One Hundred Years of Social Housing’, eds S. Lowe and D. Hughes, A New Century of Social Housing pp1-12, Leicester, University of Leicester Press (Pinter Press).

Lowe, S. ‘The social consequences of equity withdrawal from the British housing market for living standards’, (1990) ed. O. Siksio, Housing Sociology in Times of Change pp102-119, Research Report SB:29, Gavle, Sweden, International Council for Building Research and Documentation (CIB) and The National Swedish Institute for Building Research.

Lowe, S. (1990) ‘Home ownership, wealth and welfare: new connections’, eds. A. Corden, E. Robertson and K. Tolley, Meeting Needs in an Affluent Society, pp80-94, Aldershot, Avebury.

Lowe, S. (1990) ‘Home Equity and Elderly People’, ed C. Oldman, Flexible Tenure pp19-21, York, Joseph Rowntree Memorial trust/National Federation of Housing Associations.

Lowe, S. (1990) ‘Capital accumulation in home ownership and family welfare’, pp44-66 eds. N. Manning and C. Ungerson, Social Policy Review 1989-90, Harlow, Longman.

Lowe, S. (1988) ‘Owner occupation: new patterns of wealth’, in R.Walker and G. Parker, Money Matters pp149-165, London, Sage.

Online publications

Lowe, S. (forthcoming) 'Housing Abandonment' and 'Housing Classes and Consumption Cleavages', The International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home.

Journal articles

Hudson, J, Lowe, S, Oscroft, N and Snell, C (=) (2007) 'Activating Policy Networks – a Case Study of Local Environmental Policy Making in the UK', Policy Studies, 28, 1.

Lowe, S. (2000) ‘A Tale of two cities – rental housing in Budapest and Sofia in the 1990s’, in Housing and the Built Environment, Vol. 15 No. 3: 249-266.

Lowe, S., Keenan, P. and Spencer, S. (1998) ‘Housing Abandonment in Inner Cities: The Politics of Low demand for Housing’ in Housing Studies, Vol. 14, No. 5.

Stuart Lowe (joint = with Professor J. Kemeny) (1997) ‘Schools of Comparative Housing Research: from convergence to divergence.’ in Housing Studies.

Stuart Lowe (1996) ‘Lessons from the History of British Housing’ in Sociological Problems (Journal of the Institute of Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Vol 37, No.3 (in Bulgarian) Autumn.

Stuart Lowe, (1990) ‘Equity withdrawal from the housing market: a British flood, a Hungarian trickle’ in Netherlands Journal of Urban and Regional Research Vol.5 No.4, pp271-290.

Stuart Lowe and Richard Barnett (=) (1990) ‘Measuring Housing Need and the Provision of Social Housing’ Housing Studies Vol.15 No.3, pp 184-194.

Stuart Lowe and Ivan Tosics, (=) (1988) ‘The social use of market processes in British and Hungarian housing’ in Housing Studies Vol. 4 No.3, pp150-171.