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A Flat of My Own: Singlehood and Rental Housing

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Urban Spaces and Gender in Asia

Part of the book series: Sustainable Development Goals Series ((SDGS))

Abstract

Urban ecology often addresses issues of how to make cities more liveable and sustainable, unravelling the dynamics that are located within the space that it seeks to establish. One such dynamics can be found within the domain of rental housing where one’s identity plays a significant role in access to these spaces. There are many studies that have addressed this issue of discrimination based on different aspects of one’s identity, but very few have foregrounded the predicament of single tenants within the age group of 25–40 years, who have migrated to metropolitan cities. Using Lefebvre’s three-pronged strategy to understand the social nature of space and the spatial nature of the society, we begin with the contention that rental housing is not only a geographical space but also a social space. This paper also looks at what de Certeau calls “ways of operating” by looking at the spatial practice and representational spaces occupied by these women and men where “singlehood” emerges as a significant variable affecting one’s chances of accessing certain kinds of rental housing and once this access is established, the negotiations that happen thereafter.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For studies linking residential patterns and class see Castells (1977), Kurtulus (2007), Sandhu (2003), Soni (2000) and Thrift and Amin (1987). For studies on segregation based on race and ethnicity, see Drydakis (2011), Jackson and Smith (1981) and Peach et al. (1981). For more recent account connecting religion and urban segregation, see Jamil (2017). For studies on migration, neighbourhood, kinship and residential patterns, see MSA Rao (1992). The list here is by no means exhaustive but only an indication towards some of the many issues that were addressed within urban studies.

  2. 2.

    Delhi Belly is a Bollywood film released in the year 2011.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Rashi Bhargava

  2. Department of English, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Richa Chilana

Authors
  1. Rashi Bhargava
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  2. Richa Chilana
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Correspondence to Rashi Bhargava .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Human Resource Development Center, Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India

    Divya Upadhyaya Joshi

  2. Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Caroline Brassard

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Bhargava, R., Chilana, R. (2020). A Flat of My Own: Singlehood and Rental Housing. In: Joshi, D., Brassard, C. (eds) Urban Spaces and Gender in Asia. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36494-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36494-6_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36493-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36494-6

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