Localised Housing Projects As Sites of Social Transformation

Across many regions, escalating housing affordability crises intersect with political volatility, economic restructuring and shifting governance regimes. As higher‑level policy responses remain fragmented in many jurisdictions around the world, local governments and place‑based organisations are increasingly experimenting with new governance, financing and delivery models to stabilise housing systems and respond to community needs.

This session explores how these local experiments unfold amid global turbulence. It considers the extent to which local authorities can act as democratic, redistributive and ecologically grounded actors capable of reshaping urban and regional housing systems, even as they navigate intensifying market pressures, state‑level constraints and transnational dynamics such as conflict, financialisation and climate risk.

For this session examining the localisation of housing provision and the role of local organisations within the broader context of Global Sociology in Turbulent Times, we welcome contributions that investigate locally driven or council‑led housing initiatives; analyse the institutional, financial or discursive conditions that enable or constrain local action; or examine how councils and community actors counter land financialisation, advance climate‑resilient development, or embed social and ecological values in housing provision. Comparative, theoretical, empirical and practice‑based papers are all encouraged, including those that situate local housing governance within wider global transformations.

The session aims to generate a rich discussion on the opportunities and limits of local capacity, the politics of place‑based housing governance, and the potential of localism to inform transformative, not‑for‑profit housing solutions in an era of profound social, economic and environmental turbulence.