Introduction to the Special Issue: Social Control, Housing and the Law

In this special issue on housing and social control, we explore the relationship between these two concepts through a socio-legal perspective. We investigate how law plays a role in shaping and assessing the connection between housing and social control, by, on the one hand, serving as an instrument of social control, and, on the other hand, acting as a limitation on the ability to impose social control. In addition to this dual function of the law, we identify four scenarios where social control and housing intersect, ranging from the complete absence of housing, to access to, occupation of and eviction from housing. The contributions to the special issue have a wide geographical scope (including case studies from Europe, America, Africa and Australia); each deals with one or more of these four scenarios, and they each underline one or both of the two functions of law as regards social control.