The Configuration of a Multi-Pronged Housing Movement in Barcelona


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.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v16i1p63

Keywords: Barcelona; COVID-19 pandemic; Housing movements; Multi-pronged movements; Social movements

References


AA.VV. Federación Anarquista de Gran Canaria, Sindicat del Poble Sec & Espai Veinal del Cabañal (2020). Armas de Barrio, lucha por la vivienda y autoorganización. Milvus.

Accornero, G. Mona, H., Magalhães, A.F., Santos, F.G., Semi, G., Samuel, S. Tulumello, S. (2020). ‘Stay Home Without a Home’: Report from a webinar on the right to housing in Covid-19 lockdown times. Radical Housing Journal, Vol 2, 1, pp. 197-201.

Aguilar, S. and A. Fernández. (2010). El movimiento por la vivienda digna en España o el porqué del fracaso de una protesta con amplia base social. Revista Internacional de Sociología, 68(3), 679-704

Alexandri, G., and Y. M. Janoschka (2017). Who Loses and Who Wins in a Housing Crisis? Lessons from Spain and Greece for a Nuanced Understanding of Dispossession. Housing Policy Debate 28 (1): 117–134. doi:10.1080/10511482.2017.1324891.

Andreu Acebal M. (2016). Barri, Veins i democracia: el moviment ciutadà i la reconstrucció de Barcelona (1968-1986). L’avenc, Barcelona.

Barranco, O., Martínez, M. and González, R. (2018). La PAH y la emergencia habitacional. In Ibarra, P., Gomà, R., Martí, S.& González, R. (Eds.) Movimientos sociales y derecho a la ciudad. Creadoras de democracia radical. Barcelona: Icaria, p. 54-70.

Bosi, L., Giugni, M. and Uba, K. (Eds.) (2016). The consequences of social movements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chenoweth, E., Choi-Fitzpatrick, A., Pressman, J., Santos, F.G., Ulfelder, J. (2020). The global pandemic has spawned new forms of activism – and they’re flourishing. The Guardian, 20 April 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/20/the-global-pandemic-has-spawned-new-forms-of-activism-and-theyre-flourishing

Christophers, B. (2021). Mind the rent gap: Blackstone, housing investment and the reordering of urban rent surfaces, Urban Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980211026466

Crespí, M., and Domínguez, M. (2021). Las consecuencias de la turistificación en el centro de las grandes ciudades. El caso de Madrid y Barcelona. Ciudad y Territorio. Estudios Territoriales, Vol. LIII, pp. 61-82.

CTESC (2021). El dret a l’Habitatge. Consell de treball, econòmic i social de Catalunya, Collecció Estudis i Informes número 58. Barcelona. https://ctesc.gencat.cat/doc/doc_13636361_1.pdf

D’Adda, G. et al. (Eds.) (2021). La Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca. Una década de lucha por la vivienda digna 2009-2019, Barcelona: Bellaterra.

Debelle, G., Cattaneo, C., Gonzalez, R., Barranco, O., & Llobet, M. (2018). Squatting Cycles in Barcelona: Identities, Repression and the Controversy of Institutionalisation. In The Urban Politics of Squatter’' Movements (pp. 51-73). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

de Nardis, F. and Antonazzo, L. (2017). Some Theoretical Insights on Social Movements and Resistance Practices in the Era of De-Politicization of Representative Politics. Società Mutamento Politica, vol. 8(15): pp. 103-128.

Di Feliciantonio, C. (2017). Social movements and alternative housing models: Practicing the “politics of possibilities” in Spain. Housing, Theory and Society, 34, pp. 38–56.

Directa (2022). Destapem Blackstone. Núm. 545 de l’11/4 al 24/4 de 2022, pp. 4-11.

El Economista (2021). Caída histórica del PIB por el COVID: la economía española se hunde un 11% en 2020 pero alargó la recuperación a final de año. 29 de enero 2021. https://www.eleconomista.es/economia/noticias/11019886/01/21/El-PIB-registra-una-caida-historica-del-11-en-2020-por-el-covid-pese-crecer-un-04-en-el-cuarto-trimestre.html

El Periódico (2022). Catalunya encabeza los desahucios de vivienda. 6 de junio 2022. https://www.elperiodico.com/es/economia/20220606/catalunya-encabeza-desahucios-vivienda-13791069

Fields, D. (2017). Urban struggles with financialization. Geography Compass, 11, pp. 12334–13.

Flesher, C. (2020). Democracy Reloaded. Inside Spain’s Political Laboratory from 15-M to Podemos. New York: Oxford University Press.

Flesher, C. and Laurence, C. (Eds.) (2013). Understanding European Movements. New Social Movements, Global Justice Struggles, Anti-Austerity Protest. Abingdon: Routledge.

Furceri, D. et al. (2020). “How Pandemics Leave the Poor Even Farther Behind” IMF blog - May 11, 2020.

Garcia-López, M.A., Jofre-Monseny, J., Martínez-Mazza R., Segú, M. (2020). Do short-term rental platforms affect housing markets? Evidence from Airbnb in Barcelona. Journal of Urban Economics, 119: 103278.

García-Lamarca, M. (2021). Real estate crisis resolution regimes and residential REITs: emerging socio-spatial impacts in Barcelona. Housing Studies, 36(9), pp. 1407-1426.

Gil, J. and Martínez, M. (2023) State-led Actions Reigniting the Financialization of Housing in Spain. Housing, Theory & Society 40(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2021.2013316

Gonick, S. (2021). Dispossession and dissent. Immigrants and the Struggle for Housing in Madrid. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

González, R. (2019). From the squatters’ movement to housing activism in Spain: Identities, tactics and political orientation. In N. M. Yip, M. A. Martínez, & X. Sun (Eds.), Contested cities and urban activism (pp. 175–197). Palgrave.

Jacobsson, K. (Ed.) (2015). Urban grassroots movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.

Katsiaficas, G. (2006) The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life. Oakland: AK Press.

Koopmans, R. (1995). Democracy from below: New social movements and the political system in West Germany. Boulder: Westview.

Kriesi, H., Koopmans, R., Duyvendak, J. W., & Giugni, M. G. (1995). New social movements in

Western Europe: A comparative analysis. London: University College London.

Lira, M. and March, H. (2021). Learning through housing activism in Barcelona: knowledge production and sharing in Neighborhood-based housing groups. Housing Studies, DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2021.1921121

López, I. and Rodríguez, E. (2010). Fin de ciclo: Financiarización, territorio y sociedad de propietarios en la onda larga del capitalismo hispano (1959–2010). Madrid: Traficantes de sueños.

Madden D. and Marcuse P. (2016). In Defense of Housing. Verso, London & NY.

Mansilla, J. (2023). Social movements and class struggle: Against unequal urban transformations from the neighborhood. Journal of Urban Affairs 45(1): 216. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2021.1947747

Martínez, M. (2018). The Urban Politics of Squatters’ Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Martínez, M. (2019). Bitter wins or a long-distance race? Social and political outcomes of the Spanish housing movement. Housing studies, Vol. 34-10, pp. 1588-1611.

Martínez M. (2020). Mutating mobilisations during the pandemic crisis in Spain. Interface: a journal for and about social movements, Vol. 12, 1, pp. 15-21.

Martínez, M. and Gil, J. (2022). Grassroots struggles challenging housing financialization in Spain. Housing Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2022.2036328

Mayer, M. (2016) Neoliberal Urbanism and Uprisings Across Europe. In Mayer, M. et al. (Eds) Urban Uprisings: Challenging the Neoliberal City in Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan-Springer, 57-92.

Mendes L. (2020). How can we quarantine without a home? Responses of activism and urban social movements in times of covid-19 pandemic crisis in Lisbon. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Vol. 111, 3, pp. 318–332.

Nicholls, W., Miller, B. and Beaumont, J. (Eds.) (2013). Spaces of contention. Spatialities and Social Movements. Farnham: Ashgate.

Ortiz, C., and Boano, C. (2020). ‘Stay at Home’: Housing as a pivotal infrastructure of care? Development Planning Unit [Blog]. Available at: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/dpublog/2020/04/06/stay-at-home-housing-as-a-pivotal-infrastructure-of-care/

Owens, L. (2009). Cracking under pressure. Narrating the decline of the Amsterdam squatters’ movement. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Polanska, D. and Richard, Å. (2021). Resisting renovictions: Tenants organizing against housing

companies’ renewal practices in Sweden, Radical Housing Journal, 3, pp. 187–205.

Preston, P. (2001). El triunfo de la democracia en España. Grijalbo Mondadori, Barcelona (1986).

Palomera, J. (2014). How did finance capital infiltrate the world of the urban poor? Homeownership and social fragmentation in a Spanish neighborhood. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 38, 1, pp. 218-235.

Palomera, J. (2018). Els sindicats de llogaters i la lluita per l’habitatge en el nou cicle de financiarització. Papers: Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona: Territori, estratègies, planejament, Vol. 60, pp. 156-163.

RHJ editorial collective (2020). Covid-19 and housing struggles: The (re)makings of austerity, disaster capitalism, and the no return to normal. Radical Housing Journal, Vol 2, 1, pp. 09-28.

Romanos, E. (2014). Evictions, petitions and escraches: Contentious housing in austerity Spain. Social Movement Studies, Vol. 13, 2, pp. 296-302.

Rossini, L., Bianchi, I. (2019). Negotiating (re)appropriation practices amid crisis and austerity. International Planning Studies, Vol. 25, 1, pp. 100-121.

Sabaté, I. (2020). Overindebtedness and resistance. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Anthropology, pp. 1-28. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Santos F.G. (2019). Social movements and the politics of care: empathy, solidarity and eviction blockades. Social Movement Studies, Vol.19, 2, pp. 125-143.

Tarrow, S. (1994). Power in Movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The New York Time (2021). As Pandemic Evictions Rise, Spaniards Declare ‘War’ on Wall Street Landlords. By Nicholas Casey and Roser Toll Pifarré, Nov. 21, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/21/world/europe/spain-evictions-cerberus-covid.html

Thörn, C. (2020) “We’re not moving” solidarity and collective housing struggle in a changing Sweden. In Krase J. and J. DeSena (Eds), Gentrification around the World. Vol I (New York: Palgrave), pp.175-196.

Tilly, C. and Tarrow, S. (2007). Contentious Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Yip, N. M, Martínez, M. A. and Sun, X. (Eds.) (2019). Contested Cities and Urban Activism. Singapore: Palgrave.

Yrigoy, I. (2018). State-Led Financial Regulation and Representations of Spatial Fixity: The Example of the Spanish Real Estate Sector. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Vol. 42(4): 594-611. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12650.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.