Alan Gilbert – författare

Originally published in 1993, In Search of a Home filled a conspicuous gap in the literature on housing in the developing world at the time. For many years, self-help settlement and the owner-occupier had commanded the attention of governments and researchers, leaving huge numbers of tenants and sharers invisible. However, the assumption that every family both wished and was able to become an owner-occupier was now under scrutiny and it was becoming clear in many of the larger Latin American cities that there was a limit to universal home ownership, even of the self-help kind. Several governments in the developing world had expressed concern about the rental housing market, which had long been neglected at the policy level. Research activity had begun to respond to these changes, and this book put the spotlight on rental and shared housing.

Based on three large surveys carried out by research teams from Caracas, Mexico City and Santiago, the book investigates the nature of owners, tenants, sharers and landlords, and explores the relationships between them. It considers both government policy and the reasons why rental housing was in decline.

In Search of a Home is intended for government planners, social scientists and students of development – particularly those concerned about urbanization and the housing of the poor. It is relevant not only to Latin America but also to many other parts of the developing world where large numbers of families live in rental accommodation.

Originally published in 1993, In Search of a Home filled a conspicuous gap in the literature on housing in the developing world at the time. For many years, self-help settlement and the owner-occupier had commanded the attention of governments and researchers, leaving huge numbers of tenants and sharers invisible. However, the assumption that every family both wished and was able to become an owner-occupier was now under scrutiny and it was becoming clear in many of the larger Latin American cities that there was a limit to universal home ownership, even of the self-help kind. Several governments in the developing world had expressed concern about the rental housing market, which had long been neglected at the policy level. Research activity had begun to respond to these changes, and this book put the spotlight on rental and shared housing.

Based on three large surveys carried out by research teams from Caracas, Mexico City and Santiago, the book investigates the nature of owners, tenants, sharers and landlords, and explores the relationships between them. It considers both government policy and the reasons why rental housing was in decline.

In Search of a Home is intended for government planners, social scientists and students of development – particularly those concerned about urbanization and the housing of the poor. It is relevant not only to Latin America but also to many other parts of the developing world where large numbers of families live in rental accommodation.

As each power vies for its national interests on the world stage, how do its own citizens'' democratic interests fare at home? Alan Gilbert speaks to an issue at the heart of current international-relations debate. He contends that, in spite of neo-realists'' assumptions, a vocal citizen democracy can and must have a role in global politics. Further, he shows that all the major versions of realism and neo-realism, if properly stated with a view of the national interest as a common good, surprisingly lead to democracy. His most striking example focuses on realist criticisms of the Vietnam War. Democratic internationalism, as Gilbert terms it, is really the linking of citizens'' interests across national boundaries to overcome the antidemocratic actions of their own governments. Realist misinterpretations have overlooked Thucydides'' theme about how a democracy corrupts itself through imperial expansion as well as Karl Marx''s observations about the positive effects of democratic movements in one country on events in others. Gilbert also explodes the democratic peace myth that democratic states do not wage war on one another. He suggests instead policies to accord with the interests of ordinary citizens whose shared bond is a desire for peace. Gilbert shows, through such successes as recent treaties on land mines and policies to slow global warming that citizen movements can have salutary effects. His theory of "deliberative democracy" proposes institutional changes that would give the voice of ordinary citizens a greater influence on the international actions of their own government.