Policy Press

Precarious Intimacies

Generation, Rent and Reproducing Relationships in London

By Faith MacNeil Taylor

Published

Mar 18, 2025

Page count

162 pages

ISBN

978-1529224863

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Feb 22, 2024

Page count

162 pages

ISBN

978-1529224856

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Feb 22, 2024

Page count

162 pages

ISBN

978-1529224870

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press

Published

Feb 22, 2024

Page count

162 pages

ISBN

978-1529224870

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Bristol University Press
Precarious Intimacies

In a time of increasing social and economic inequality, this book illustrates the precarity experienced by millennials facing both rising rents and wage stagnation. Featuring the voices of those with lived experience of precarity in north-east London, MacNeil Taylor focuses on intimacy, reproduction and emotional labour.

The book widens readers’ understanding of a middle-class ‘generation rent’ beyond those locked out of anticipated home ownership by considering both social and private renters. Situated in a feminist and queer theoretical framework, the book reveals the crucial role of British policy-making on housing, welfare, and immigration in exacerbating inter- and intra-generational inequality.

“A searing account of the tenant experience in London, and the ways in which assumptions of ideal family life feed into millennial precarity.” Mel Nowicki, Oxford Brookes University

"Beautifully written and compellingly argued, this book disrupts homogenizing discourses of millennial life to foreground how precarity is produced and reproduced through the neoliberalization of housing." Kendra Strauss, Simon Fraser University

Faith Taylor is a scholar, playworker and musician. They have held academic and research posts at Royal Holloway, University of London and the London Assembly. They currently run community singing groups and teach musical theatre at London Media Academy.

1. Introduction

2. Precarious Intimacy

3. Obstructing Reproduction

4. Labours

5. Feeling Space

6. Conclusion