Urban Displacements

Susanne Soederberg is Professor of Political Economy in Global Development Studies at Queen’s University, Canada.

‘Soederberg has successfully captured the complex global ecosystem connecting capitalism, the housing crisis and rising un(der)employment, and delivered it in an accessible, informed package. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting compelling and relevant real-world examples from some of the worst-hit urban centres in the world.’Leilani Farha, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing and Director of The Shift‘In her newest book, Soederberg revisits the "housing question" famously raised by Engels one and a half centuries ago. Placing today’s housing question into the wider class dynamics and contradictions of contemporary global capitalism, the book lays bare the root causes of urban poverty, precarious housing and homelessness in three European cities. With this highly accessible book, once again Soederberg has proven herself as a distinct, most original and radical voice addressing the big social questions of our times.’Professor Dorothee Bohle, Chair in Social and Political Change at the European University Institute, Italy‘At a time when a dramatic housing crisis prompting massive displacements has exploded in the midst wealthy European cities, a trenchant materialist analysis astutely revealing its underpinning drivers, the class configurations of power, and the concrete, different – yet disturbingly similar – processes governing 21st century poor housing, could not be more topical.’Professor Margit Mayer, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Metropolitan Studies, Germany‘What is the role of racialised barriers to housing in changing landscapes of accumulation? How does renting become a central process in disuniting working people? This insightful work guides the reader through this most urgent of debates.’Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, Centre for Migration, Refugees and Belonging at the University of East London, UK

• Displacements — An Introduction Part I: Framing Displacements 1. Disrupting the Housing Crisis 2. Renewing the Housing Question Part II: Regional Displacements 3. Displacements in the European Union Part III: Urban Displacements Prefacing Berlin 4. Stigmatizing Survival 5. Displaced Survival in Neukölln 6. Interrupting the Refugee Crisis Prefacing Vienna 7. Politicizing a Prototype 8. Displaced Survival in a Housing Model Prefacing Dublin 9. Decentring a Homelessness Crisis Displacements — A Conclusion