The global housing affordability crisis and COVID shutdowns have put living space inequality back on the political agenda. Drawing on Durkheim’s theory of anomie and density, this paper argues that on how many square meters a society lives matters for how stable or anomic it develops. Using data from the Swiss Household Panel, we examine the selection, short-term, and dynamic effects associated with transitions to overcrowded and under-occupied dwellings. We conceptualize these transitions as disruptive events that require a reconfiguration of personal and social equilibria in individuals’ lives. While overcrowded housing leads to a heightening of emotional states and more tense internal household dynamics, people respond by adjusting their leisure activities and restructuring their support networks from strong to weak ties. Conversely, moving to an under-occupied dwelling is associated with melancholic emotional stabilization, but improves household balance and leads to consolidation of the core network of relatives at the expense of outer social circles. We conclude that the classical characterization of anomie as a mismatch between personal means and societal ends should be understood as a multifaceted phenomenon in which meso-level social networks can be a crucial means to cope with disruptions that arise at other levels.

中文翻译：

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自己的房间？生活密度对个人福祉和社会失范的影响


全球住房负担能力危机和 COVID 关闭使生活空间不平等重新回到政治议程上。借鉴涂尔干的失范和密度理论，本文认为，一个社会生活在多少平方米上，关系到它的发展程度或异常程度。使用来自瑞士家庭小组的数据，我们研究了与过渡到过度拥挤和入住不足的住宅相关的选择、短期和动态影响。我们将这些转变概念化为破坏性事件，需要重新配置个人生活中的个人和社会平衡。虽然过度拥挤的住房会导致情绪状态的加剧和更紧张的家庭内部动态，但人们通过调整他们的休闲活动和将他们的支持网络从强到弱重组来应对。相反，搬到居住不足的住宅与忧郁的情绪稳定有关，但可以改善家庭平衡，并以牺牲外部社交圈为代价来巩固核心亲属网络。我们得出的结论是，将失范定义为个人手段和社会目的之间的不匹配，应该被理解为一种多方面的现象，其中中观层面的社交网络可以成为应对其他层面出现的破坏的关键手段。