Revisiting the Housing Question As a Social-Ecological Question (Part I)
Revisiting the Housing Question As a Social-Ecological Question (Part I)
Monday, 7 July 2025: 09:00-10:45
Location: FSE032 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
RC43 Housing and Built Environment (host committee) RC21 Regional and Urban Development
RC24 Environment and Society
Language: English
Against the backdrop of climate change, the housing question has shifted from a social to a socio-ecological question. A key insight of urban political and social ecology is the interrelatedness of the built environment and nature: „the changes in the environment due to societal problem-solving", as Fischer-Kowalski and Erb (2016, p. 51), put it, such as the construction of new housing in response to a lack of affordable housing, "generate much of the problems we need to solve", such as high resource use, emissions, the sealing of soil, and heat island effects. Yet in housing politics, the standard response to the lack of affordable housing continues to be the provision of new housing. This is the case even in contexts where there is no absolute shortage of housing but a market-driven mismatch between housing supply (e.g., by the production of housing as an asset) and housing demand (e.g., the need for shelter). What are alternatives to solving the housing question by constructing new housing? Which political, legal, economic, planning and/or architectural interventions are desirable and possible to foster the reuse, repair, and redistribution of the existing building stock? What are concrete ideas for, drivers of and barriers to a socio-ecological transformation of housing? This session invites contributions that respond to these questions. It is particularly interested in submissions that engage with the housing question as a socio-ecological question not only at the micro-level of single housing projects but also at the meso- and macro-level of ‘housing systems’ and politics.
Session Organizer:
Chair:
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Oral Presentations
See more of: RC43 Housing and Built Environment
See more of: RC21 Regional and Urban Development
See more of: RC24 Environment and Society
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See more of: RC21 Regional and Urban Development
See more of: RC24 Environment and Society
See more of: Research Committees