Abstract for: Systemic Issues of Social Housing in England: Identifying Archetypes for a Just Transition towards Sustainability

Social housing is fundamental to accommodate a growing urban population within planetary boundaries. However, political, economic, environmental, and societal pressures jeopardize its provision. This study restructures insights on the challenges faced by the English social housing sector, with the aim to identify leverage points to support a just transition towards sustainability. By extracting variables and interconnections from key sources, we obtain six causal loop diagrams depicting interrelated dynamics of mismanagement and exclusion. Two archetypes illustrate how the push for new construction and regeneration as a remedy to housing shortage and segregation is a temporary symptomatic solution, with debatable benefits on health and the environment. On this basis, we outline leverage points to intervene in the system and propose research paths to validate its structure empirically.