housing

From the Field

The Ongoing Housing Crisis and the Rust Belt Revolt for the GOP

Elora Lee Raymond - 13 January 2017

In response to a tense post-election moment in the US, the Metropolitics editorial committee has initiated...

From the Field

Contesting Economies of Displacement and Dispossession

Joshua Akers - 13 January 2017

Joshua Akers describes Detroit’s housing crisis, characterized by speculation, displacement, and increasingly violent...

Debates

On Our Own: Protecting and Developing Social Housing in the Trump Era

John Krinsky - 13 January 2017

In response to a tense post-election moment in the US, the Metropolitics editorial committee has initiated...

Reviews

Evictions and Poverty

Hilary Botein - 28 June 2016

Matthew Desmond’s Evicted has drawn much-needed attention to the under-studied problem of unsubsidized rental...

Essays

The Wrecker’s Pick. The Rationales and Hidden Agendas of Urban Renewal in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Alain Faure & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 7 June 2016

Alain Faure, a scholar of the social history of cities, puts urban renewal into perspective. He questions the...

Reviews

Neighborhood Change and the Right to the City

Adam Tanaka - 29 March 2016

New York City’s Stuyvesant Town is the largest housing development in Manhattan, and also one of the most...

Reviews

Dawn of the Indebted: Zombie Neoliberalism Hits the Big Screen

Desiree Fields & Tom Gillespie - 8 March 2016

As the tremors of the 2008 crumbling US housing market were felt around the world, even the most astute couldn’t have...

From the Field

How Children Cope When Home is a Hotel

Erwan Le Méner & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 5 February 2016

Emergency housing in social hotels is affecting a growing number of families in the Paris region. How does this...

From the Field

Federal Anti-Segregation Milestones Demand Local Mobilization

Justin Steil - 24 November 2015

In June 2015, the US Supreme Court affirmed a legal tool that stands to hold municipalities and lenders accountable...

Debates

To Prevent Worsening Inequality, Put Affluent Neighborhoods on NYC Rezoning List

Moses Gates - 17 November 2015

Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning is meant to boost the affordable housing supply and create more economically integrated...

Essays

The “Dozois Plan”: lessons learned from urban-renewal policies and the history of urban planning in Montreal

Frédéric Mercure-Jolette & translated by Oliver Waine - 23 October 2015

Urban-renewal policies justify their actions by decrying neighbourhoods earmarked for demolition. Frédéric...

Debates

Social housing in Africa: a model to be (re)invented?

Alexandra Biehler & Armelle Choplin & Marie Morelle & translated by Oliver Waine - 16 October 2015

While the question of housing for working-class populations remains a recurrent issue in sub‑Saharan African cities,...

Reviews

Good neighbours? Homeless people as seen by those who live alongside them

Marine Maurin & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2015

Prejudices regarding the poorest in society die hard. Does living in proximity to some of these populations help...

Debates

Precarity and Gentrification: A Feedback Loop

Samuel Stein - 14 April 2015

How do rent hikes and labor precarity conspire to reinforce each other against tenants and workers? Samuel Stein...

From the Field

When Predator Becomes Prey: Rental Housing in Low-Income Minority Neighborhoods

Clément Théry - 2 February 2015

In the growing low-income rental market, predator and prey roles can shift, as landlords and tenants alike can fall...

Debates

Interrupting Inequality: Crisis and Opportunity in Low-Income Housing Policy

Susan Saegert - 26 January 2015

Inequality in the United States is deeply rooted in issues of property ownership, wealth, race and class....

Debates

The Age of the Renter

Tony Roshan Samara - 5 January 2015

Not all Americans own their home. In fact, more and more of them rent it. More and more of them also end up paying a...

Reviews

The “ordinary” Italian suburbs: exploring the apartment buildings of the middle classes

Thomas Pfirsch & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 December 2014

Through the detailed histories of 23 apartment buildings and their inhabitants, a team of historians and architects...

Debates

Finance as a New Terrain for Progressive Urban Politics

Desiree Fields - 6 November 2014

Since the foreclosure crisis, inequalities have only deepened in the US, with most wealth accruing to the 1%. Desiree...

Debates

Using heritage status to combat segregation: the case of French housing estates

Marc Bertier & Hervé Marchal & Jean-Marc Stébé & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 October 2014

Challenging the idea that demolishing housing estates is all it takes to eradicate the social problems with which...

From the Field

Splitting suburban homes

Anne-Claire Davy & Peggy Mertiny & Mélanie Richard & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 October 2014

Many local stakeholders in the Paris region have expressed concern regarding the emergence of a process of...

Reviews

Ethnic discrimination in social housing

François Bonnet & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 March 2014

Valérie Sala Pala has investigated the extent to which ethnic criteria come into play in the allocation of social...

Reviews

Gentrification in Paris: the elite versus the people?

Colin Giraud & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 January 2014

Anne Clerval’s latest work on the gentrification of Paris, published in September 2013, caused quite a sensation in...

Reviews

Social housing in New York

François Bonnet & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 January 2014

Is high-rise public housing doomed to demolition? A book and article by historian Nicholas Dagen Bloom, focusing on...

Reviews

The intricacies of popular housing in the Middle East

Mona Fawaz - 18 December 2013

Interviews

Professionalisation, gentrification and welfare reform: 20 years of socio-spatial change in London

Manuel Appert & Anaïs Collet & Chris Hamnett - 19 June 2013

The 2008 financial crisis called time on a long period of economic transformation in European cities that has seen...

From the Field

“Soft densification” in Canada

Anastasia Touati & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2013

Against the backdrop of a housing crisis, a number of local authorities in Ontario, Canada, have developed policies...

From the Field

Mongolian (Urban) Homes

Lucile Chombart de Lauwe & Justine Pribetich & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 April 2013

The rapid urbanisation that Mongolia has undergone in recent years has changed the way its population lives. These...

Interviews

Solving the housing crisis: opening up private housing to the social sector

Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & Jean-Pierre Lévy & Nadine Roudil & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 February 2013

Jean-Pierre Lévy has devoted much of his work to the issue of poor housing conditions. Here, for Metropolitics, he...

Interviews

Self-managed housing at the Maison du Val

Alain His & Olivier Ratouis & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 December 2012

Alain His, co-founder of the Maison du Val in Meudon, near Paris, talks to us about this self‑managed housing complex...

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