This topical book links housing issues in other areas of social policy drawing on current themes in the social sciences. It transforms the analysis of housing problems into a lively, interesting and contentious subject of social scientific study. Housing is fundamentally integrated into the welfare system and therefore requires exploration using conceptual ideas drawn from the social sciences. This book aims to encourage those studying and working in both social policy and housing to think refelxively about housing as a central instrument of social policy, rather than considering it to be an isolated occupation that merely requires the application of technical and administrative skills. As well as two chapters expounding and reviewing the centrality of housing to wider social policy and social experience, this book is largely comprised of chapters which each consider a specific social category, such as class, gender, or disability, and evaluate the experience and understanding of housing and social policy under this category. The authors address themes of residential experience, inclusion/empowerment, sustainability and professionalism/managerialism, which lie at the heart of the h