Comparative Housing Systems and Segregation Patterns in Central, Eastern, Southern and Southeastern Europe

Wednesday, 9 July 2025: 13:00-14:45
Location: ASJE016 (Annex of the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences)
RC21 Regional and Urban Development (host committee)

Language: English and French

The objective of this session is to provide evidence on the changing housing systems and segregation patterns from peripheral European regions. The evidence should shed light on the converging impact of global forces (commodification and financialization of access to housing and retreat of the protective state) versus the diverging impact of contextual factors (local policy arrangements, welfare state types and traditions, civil society mobilizations).

The session focuses on Central, Eastern and Southern European regions because they comprise diverse welfare systems (corporate, state socialist with transition trajectories, familist-residual) and, at the same time are understudied. These regions also comprise metropolises with different positions in terms of income and wealth and with very distinct histories in terms of housing systems and segregation patterns. Therefore, they provide a challengingly diverse terrain to examine the different impact of global forces promoting commodification and financialization (e.g. by the rise of tourism) within different contexts.

The question is whether these different urban contexts are converging under the pressure of global forces and what does this mean? How does the interaction between global forces and local conditions affect housing affordability? What role does the mobilization of civil society play in shaping housing policies?

The proposed session is based on several comparative projects bringing together cities like Athens, Belgrade, Lisbon, Naples and Vienna. However, the organizers mainly expect presentation proposals outside the projects they already know, potentially including cases beyond the specified geographical boundaries.

The format of the proposed session is Paper presentation session.

Session Organizers:
Thomas MALOUTAS, Harokopio University, Greece, Robert MUSIL, Institute of Urban and Regional Developement, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria and Ivan RATKAJ, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Geography, Serbia
Oral Presentations
Post-Socialist Gentrifications
Matthias BERNT, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space, Germany; Agnieszka OGRODOWCZYK, University od Lodz, Poland
Housing Affordability and Segmentation in Urban Europe in the 21st Century
Szymon MARCINCZAK, Lódz Univeristy, Poland; Bartosz BARTOSIEWICZ, Poland; Tomasz MIKOŁAJCZYK, University of Lodz, Poland
Touristification on a Southern European Context: The Cases of Athens, Lisbon and Naples
Stavros SPYRELLIS, National Centre for Social Research (EKKE), Greece; Nick DINES, University of Milan Bicocca, Italy; Simone TULUMELLO, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal; Cristina MATTIUCCI, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
The Capacity of the State to Govern the Spatial Marginality of Roma in Bulgaria and Hungary
Tünde VIRÁG, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungary
Distributed Papers
Precarious Homes. Tirana in the Making of a New European Capital
Chiara IACOVONE, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
The Spatial Dynamics of Inequality: Mapping Socioeconomic Segregation and Fragmentation in Major Spanish Metropolitan Areas.
Miguel RUBIALES - PÉREZ, Universidad de Barcelona; Arlinda GARCIA, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Fernando GIL-ALONSO, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Cristina LÓPEZ-VILLANUEVA, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Residualization of Public Housing – Lessons from Poland’s Five Largest Cities
Tomasz MIKOŁAJCZYK, University of Lodz, Poland; Szymon MARCINCZAK, Lódz Univeristy, Poland; Bartosz BARTOSIEWICZ, Poland