Globalisation, spatial polarization and the housing market

Major cities in the western world now have entered a new and different phase of economic and social development since the apparent end of urban growth during the 1970s. The growing and, especially in Europe, more intense international cooperation have created a new institutional structure for coping with social and economic turmoil in the wake of globalisation. A number of papers have discussed and demonstrated the social and economic effects of economic restructuring inherent in globalisation, and other associated transformations. However, other processes peripheral to globalisation challenge its claim to being the sole cause of most important social changes. Demographic changes such as an ageing population have a major impact on the social structure of cities as well as local institutional arrangements, i.e. in relation to housing conditions.