HOUSES, HOUSING AND HOME - THE LATEST TRE NDS IN SOCIAL-RESEARCH ON HOUSING PROBLEMS SINCE THE END OF THE 1980S

This article presents a survey of the recent researches on housing and living conditions which have been published in France since the end o f the 1980's. It tries to point out the main changes which occurred in this particular field of research, and more generally in the social s ciences, concerning both the issues and the investigation methods. In opposition to the former approach, these publications are focussed on social practices and stress the necessary relationship between the hou sing system on one side and the inhabitants' strategies on the other s ide. Such a dynamic approach achieves to explain the making of social groups and their identities. It also shows how urban spaces are produc ed and appropriated by them.