The Configuration of a Multi-Pronged Housing Movement in Barcelona

Authors

  • Luisa Rossini Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Ciências Sociais
  • Miguel A. Martínez Uppsala University, IBF - Institute for Housing and Urban Research
  • Angela García Bernardos University of Barcelona, ETS - School of Social Work

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v16i1p63

Keywords:

Barcelona, COVID-19 pandemic, Housing movements, Multi-pronged movements, Social movements

Abstract

The housing movement that emerged in Spanish cities during the 2007–8 global financial crisis has undergone various mutations. If at first it was led by the anti-evictions fight of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) and the housing groups of the 15M mobilization cycle (2011–14), the successive rent crises since 2013 and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–22) have given rise to new activist expressions—housing/neighborhood unions (sindicats d'habitatge / de barri) and a tenants' union—in metropolitan areas such as Barcelona. These have played a central role in housing organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article we investigate the development of the housing/neighborhood unions while understanding their relationships with other housing groups in Barcelona. We first aim to know if, how, and why they have adopted, modified, or replaced the protest repertoires used by the PAH and the tenants' union and, second, to what extent the local housing movement in Barcelona evolved into a more diverse and multi-pronged configuration. Our findings indicate significant divergences between these housing organizations but also a common and complementary field of activism that eventually proved to be resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Author Biographies

Luisa Rossini, Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Ciências Sociais

Luisa Rossini is is a post-doctoral researcher at the ICS, University of Lisbon. Her research focuses on the analysis of insurgent appropriation of urban public spaces and housing rights movements in cities such as Rome, Berlin, Barcelona and Lisbon. Her main publications are: "Occupations of Housing and Social Centers in Rome: A Durable Resistance to Neoliberalism and Institutionalization" and "Keep Your Piece of Cake, We’ll Squat the Bakery! Autonomy Meets Repression and Institutionalisation" (co-authored as chapters of the book, The Urban Politics of Squatters' Movements, edited by Miguel A. Martínez, Palgrave) and “Negotiating (re)appropriation practices amid crisis and austerity” (International Planning Studies).

Miguel A. Martínez, Uppsala University, IBF - Institute for Housing and Urban Research

Miguel A. Martínez is Professor of Housing and Urban Sociology at the IBF (Institute for Housing and Urban Research), Uppsala University (Sweden). He is the author of Squatters in the Capitalist City (Routledge, 2020), editor of The Urban Politics of Squatters' Movements (Palgrave, 2018), and co-editor of Contested Cities and Urban Activism (Palgrave, 2019). Most of his publications are freely available at: www.miguelangelmartinez.net

Angela García Bernardos, University of Barcelona, ETS - School of Social Work

Ángela García Bernardos is assistant professor of Social Work at the University of Barcelona. She is interested on urban social movements, housing policies and processes of housing exclusion. She has co-edited (with Joan Subirats) the book Innovación y Políticas urbanas (Icaria). She is also the author of: “La ciudad en disputa: crisis, modelos de ciudad y políticas urbanas en Barcelona” (Quid16. Revista del Área de Estudios Urbanos), “Cambio e Innovación en la Política de Vivienda” (in Navarro, C. ed. Los nuevos retos de las políticas urbanas, Tirant lo Blanch), and “Converging movements: occupations of squares and buildings” (in Tejerina, B. and Perugorría, I. eds. The 15M Movement. Crisis and Social Mobilization in Contemporary Spain, Routledge).

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Published

12-04-2023

Issue

Vol. 16, No. 1 (2023). Special Issue on: "Housing Crisis and Social Mobilization in times of COVID19"

Section

Special Issue

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