Embedded In The Field:Research On Urban Youth Housing Squeeze Phenomenon

The end of the welfare housing era mean the arrival of living revolution, housing problems in the social, economic and cultural aspects are becoming prominent with the market-oriented reforms of the housing system. Some social phenomena such as ant and house slaves are becoming the trouble of the youth. In this study, we investigated854young men about their housing concepts and behaviors from Nanjing, Suzhou and Lianyungang City, which inted to depict the picture of the housing pressure for urban youth and try to present some possible explanations.The research found that youth housing squeeze is widely existed in urban society, the formation of housing squeeze is the product of urban youth voluntarily involved in real estate battle, and also the result of the interaction of economic, social and family factors, which was locked in the three fields. The game of economic field was based on a market order, that economic pressure was some sort of mandatory. The amount of revenue was difficult to shake the determination of buying houses for the youth.90percent of young people tended to purchase houses which formed preferences. Construction of marriage and family played an important role in the formation of the housing squeeze. More than70percent of young people tended to independent living after marriage, they agreed that housing is a necessary condition for marriage, the family housing pressure was imposed by the parents or spouses, which generated a bundled contract for housing and marriage. Men and women had the same responsibilities for buying houses, and this trend did not weaken the intergenerational obligations, family was social support networks for buying houses, and also the driving force behind the youth housing squeeze.In the game of social field, middle class suffered housing squeeze more seriously, just like a sandwich. These youth needed social identity or a strong incentive to move upwards through the housing, but the standards of the group were embedded in different cities in the housing field.Economic, social and family factors did not have direct effects on the purchase behavior of young people, they operated by property rights preferences of urban youth, living will, and marriage and family values. The interaction process of buying house and other factors was essentially a participation in construction of social values, the strategies the youth and their family chose were not independent of the system or power. As the field theory revealed, from the social space to the symbol space, the social meaning of housing was becoming one of the symbolic capital to construct the meaning of life of urban youth.