Miguel A. Martínez (RevHum Fellow, Oct ’22 – Feb ’23) will talk about his research at CAS:

Political Outcomes of Housing Financialisation and Social Contention in Spain

on 19 January, 2023 (Thursday) at 16:30 h.

Moderated by Stoyanka Eneva.

The project is investigating the political impacts of two interrelated phenomena: housing financialization and grassroots contestation, by focusing on the special case of Spain. On the one hand, two different historical periods of housing financialisation are identified in this country (1997-2013 and 2013-2022). The participation of national and foreign financial capital has varied significantly in the production, transactions and assetisation of housing in each period. The first goal is to analyse the different characteristics, developments and impacts of housing financialisation at different scales (local, national and transnational) and dimensions (political economy and society). On the other hand, grassroots social movements in Spain have been remarkable reactions to the above processes and other inherited shortcomings of the Spanish housing system. The movement initially led by the anti-evictions organisation PAH (Platform for People Affected by Mortgages), targeted the effects of housing speculation in impoverished homeowners and achieved substantial policy changes at local, regional and national levels. The second period of housing financialisation engendered the response of newly established tenants’ unions and local housing groups since 2017. Hence, the project’s second goal is to investigate the claims, strategies, protest repertoires and policy impacts of these different expressions of the housing movement.