Perspectives on Fair Housing: Sociology

The second panel in the Perspectives on Fair Housing Series included Camille Zubrinsky Charles, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology, Africana Studies, and Education, Xavier de Souza Briggs, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings, and Justin Steil, Associate Professor of Law and Urban Planning, MIT. The panelists discussed the complex relationship between fair housing and sociology, with a particular emphasis on how a lack of fair housing has affected individuals and communities and exacerbated unequal access to neighborhoods and networks.

Steil discussed the interconnectedness of housing and segregation and, as an example, how the systematic structure of racial subordination plays out in current struggles over municipal zoning. Charles expanded on the micro-level processes that help perpetuate residential segregation, such as the role individual prejudice plays in housing choice. Briggs highlighted the perspectives of sociologists in this area who look into how “certain structures and the ordering rules of our society not just get put in place, but legitimated and sustained over time,” which is particularly interesting in the spaces of housing, segregation, and white supremacy.

The group then discussed the difficulty of confronting these deeply ingrained systems and how the FHA can be a tool to confront them as well.

Full recordings and recaps of each event can be found here.