Join us for a seminar by SOAN PhD candidate Addison Kornel.
Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM
Location: MacKinnon 621
Join the seminar via Teams
Seminar Abstract
Homeowners are facing affordability challenges. In interviews with 33 homeowners in Ontario, Canada, I find frequent use of "luck" language. My analysis identifies three aspects of participants luck language.
Relational luck is used to refer to homeowners' comparisons of their situations with others. Stratified luck refers to similar favourable conditions producing security for some and mere maintenance for others. Systemic luck is used to explain why preparation for economic uncertainty cannot eliminate contingency.
Overall, I show that luck language is used to interpret unequal experiences of mortgage renewal and to reconcile household responsibility with the limited control they had over economic conditions. I argue that this pattern can be read as an articulation of a responsibilizing ethos in which households are expected to manage systemic risk as a matter of personal duty. Implications for housing studies and the emerging sociology of luck are discussed.
About the Speaker
Addison is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of Guelph. He earned his MA in Criminology in 2023 from the University of Windsor where he studied the social impact of rising housing prices in Windsor-Essex County. His PhD research focuses on the everyday impacts of mortgage renewals in Ontario, Canada. He is Research Development Coordinator for the Housing Experience Project.