Social Justice and the City Mid-term Assignment 2026: Theory of Home and the Irish Housing Crisis | UCD

The Social Justice and the City mid-term asks you to do two things in essay form: build your own social-science definition of ‘home’, and diagnose the main problem in Ireland’s housing crisis, such as affordability, supply, homelessness or the position of a specific group like renters or migrants. This analysis becomes the base for the final Clúid Housing proposal.

Mid-term Assignment: Diagnosing the Problem (50%)

Word count: 1,500 words, excluding the reference list (in-text citations count). Write at least 600 words for each of the two sections below, so that the sections are roughly equal in size; the usual +/- 10% applies.

In the mid-term assignment, you will write about two things:

Section 1: Your theory of housing and home

What do you think home means to people? The main task is to draw on social science concepts to define what home is. This will form the basis of your proposal for a model of housing, which you will develop in the final assignment. This section is mainly based on lectures one, two and three.

• Introduce some of the most useful concepts of housing and home from the academic literature.
• Explain what the concepts mean and why they are valuable, i.e. what they help us understand about home.
• Argue for how home should be conceptualised from a social justice perspective.

Section 2: The main problem(s) in the current Irish housing system

In order to fix any problem we first need to understand it. This section should discuss the current housing crisis in Ireland and explain what the key issue or issues are, using concepts and evidence. This content is mainly covered in lectures four, five and six.

It would be impossible to cover all the issues in the current housing system, so focus on the issue or issues you think are most important. You may focus on a particular aspect of the Irish housing crisis (e.g. affordability, supply, inequality, homelessness, overcrowding) or on a particular social group or cohort (e.g. working-class communities, migrants, lone parents, people with disabilities).

Key questions

• What is ‘home’? How should social scientists conceptualise home?
• What is the nature and extent of the problem, who is affected, and why is it happening?
• What problem will your later housing proposal address?

Both sections take a standard essay format; a heading for Section 1 and a heading for Section 2 is sufficient.

Final Assignment (50%) – for context

Design a model of housing provision based on social justice (1,500 words, excluding references). The proposal is developed for Clúid Housing, one of Ireland’s largest social and affordable housing providers.

Module Learning Objectives

1. Understand the economic and political processes that shape housing in the contemporary city.
2. Understand issues of social justice and inequality in relation to housing in the contemporary city.
3. Critically analyse specific housing issues and policies.
4. Bring together different forms of knowledge (including experiential and professional knowledge) to develop real-world solutions.
5. Apply academic knowledge to create real-world solutions.
6. Communicate evidence and analysis effectively.