Housing Justice, Basic Capabilities, and Self-Respect

Housing studies often draw on what we will refer to as the capabilitarian assumption. However, this assumption – that the capability approach offers the right framework for analysing housing injustice – has received little to no philosophical scrutiny. In this article we aim to fill this lacuna. We examine the prospects of a capability approach to housing justice, focusing on Nussbaum's comprehensive list of basic capabilities. We argue that her list fails to capture fundamental concerns in housing justice and therefore requires further specification. An adequate capabilitarian view on housing justice must integrate relational egalitarian considerations. We draw on a relationally egalitarian informed conception of self-respect as a basic capability to integrate those relational aspects. In doing so we aim to provide the contours of a capabilitarian theory of housing justice.