Housing is an important component of the European Pillar Social Rights. The importance of it has grown greatly in the past decades due to the significant increase in house prices in many EU countries and the decline in affordable housing. Despite this, housing is still not commonly discussed as an essential social right alongside other social rights like health care, education, pensions, and so forth.

The presentation is guided by several questions: how does the welfare state typology reflect in housing policies? Are there any convergence or divergence in housing policy solutions and outcomes in Europe? What issues have resulted in Lithuania after massive housing privatisation, and further exacerbated by the state’s support for private homeownership? Has high homeownership led to higher housing satisfaction? What is the scope of intergenerational support in housing in the societies dominated by homeownership?

About the speaker

Jolanta Aidukaite is a Chief Researcher at the Institute of Sociology, Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences. She obtained her PhD from Stockholm University in Sweden. J. Aidukaite has published extensively on the topics of welfare state, family policy, housing policy, ageing and long-term care, and urban community mobilization. Her research has been published in Journal of European Social Policy, Social Policy & Administration, Social Inclusion, Journal of Baltic Studies, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, East European Politics. Jolanta has edited a book “Challenges to the Welfare State: family and pension policies in the Baltic and Nordic countries” (2021) published by Edward Elgar in the New Horizons in Social Policy Series.