CfPs NGM 2022 Joensuu | Session 18. Housing in Crises : A European Perspective, COVID-19 and Beyond
Organizers: Defne Kadioglu, Institute for Urban Research, Malmö University and Myrto Dagkouli-Kyriakolglou, Institute of Urban Research, Malmö University
Description
Taking into consideration the three consecutive crises of 2008 (the global financial crises), 2015 (the so-called refugee crisis) and the current pandemic (a public health crisis), which all had differential effects on the European housing market, we explore the implications of “crises” on housing and its diverse dimensions. Housing financialization and commodification was exacerbated during the turbulent period of the GFC. New disruptive housing trends emerged under austerity, increasing precarity and sharpening housing inequality.
In 2015, the arrival of a new wave of migration from the Middle East and North Africa was not only instrumentalized by populist, alt-right movements across Europe, but also laid bare the fact that we are not experiencing housing shortage across the continent, but a lack of affordable housing. Just as the political and academic debate turned to the question whether we are finally in a post-crisis/post-austerity era, a new crisis, possibly even more impactful than the previous ones, is adding new challenges. COVID-19, as the previous crises, has disproportionally hit the working class, immigrants and part of the precarious middle-class in European cities, rendering visible the intricate link between housing and public health. On the one hand, this has led to even more punitive, racist and exclusionary measures and discourses targeting neighborhoods inhabiting the urban poor. On the other hand, critical voices arguing against further privatization, deregulation and financialization are becoming louder. These contradictory tendencies are indicating that we might be at a crossroads, prompting the question how public and private housing regimes and markets will develop across Europe in the upcoming decade.
With this question in mind, and taking into consideration developments on European housing markets since 2008, we seek to address the following topics:
- Crises as enablers for financialization and other novel housing trends (short- term rentals, Golden Visa in Southern Europe)
- Housing and welfare state in crises
- Housing/rental debt and crises
- Temporary rent regulations during moments of crises (eviction-stops, subsidies etc.)
- Gendered and/or racialized dimensions of the housing crises
- Crises in refugee settlements and migrant communities
- Informal housing and informal housing arrangements under crises
- Housing struggle during crises/ crises as opportunities for radical change
We particularly welcome papers with a comparative perspective.
