Generativity, agency, and time

Abstract This article argues that low- and middle-income renters and aspiring homeowners in Ireland are still living in the shadow of the 2008 financial crisis. They struggle to access home ownership and secure, high-quality housing, a situation that has material and existential consequences. Drawing on the notion of “generativity,” and the literature on the “moral economies” of housing, it theorizes the housing crisis as a crisis of agency and time. Interlocutors find themselves embedded in networks of undesired dependency, unable to achieve the milestones of adulthood, and feeling out of step with the right “time of life.” This article also argues that the housing crisis is politically galvanizing because it raises questions about the state's responsibility for inequality in the housing sector and society more broadly.