e-module Chapter 7: Solutions and Responses

Ireland has seen a significant growth in grassroots housing movements calling for housing justice since the early 2000s. These movements focus on housing as a human right and as something that cannot, and should not, be left to market forces to dictate. Calling for greater social and state action to reclaim rights to housing and rights to the city, these movements are increasingly challenging how housing is understood in Ireland. Whilst recent housing movements have been prompted by a combination of a lack of affordable housing, the aftermath of austerity and financial crises, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, fights for housing justice have a long history in Ireland. 

In thinking about responses to precarious housing, we’d like you to consider this history, and these movements, in more detail. To do so, please follow three steps:

1) Repeat: Please read back through the PuSH chapter on policy responses and recommendations. 
Focus on the sections discussing civil society responses and housing activism. Make a note of the key characteristics of housing movements described there and consider what examples of housing movements you have come across in your own local context. Do these movements fit with the description provided here, do they have particular tactics or approaches to their work, and what have they achieved in your view? You might also want to update your knowledge through checking the latest news for examples of case studies of housing movements close to home. 

2) Read: Take a look at the following two short commentary pieces. 

• Fiadh Tubridy and Colm Breathnach’s history of housing in Ireland and its legacies into the present (‘Bolshevik tactics’: fighting for better housing in 1980s Dublin // New Socialist);
• Valesca Lima’s discussion of the rise of housing activism in Ireland (The rise and rise of housing activism in Ireland (rte.ie)). Lima’s piece has a series of news clips and audio links embedded throughout so have a look through these as well for further news coverage and discussion of housing rights.

3) Analyze: Make notes to identify the key aspects of these movements in Ireland and their contemporary form.
Write down down responses to the following questions (about 150-400 words per question):

• To what extent does the rise of housing activism Lima notes today draw on the experience and tactics of socialist housing movements in the 1980s?
• What different tactics and approaches have been used by housing justice movements to advance their claims? Which do you think are most effective and why?
• What tensions exist between different approaches to seeking housing justice? Is direct action an effective tool, and under what conditions?
• To what extent is tracing housing struggles of the past valuable in thinking about housing movements and mobilisations today?

Further Reading

To develop your knowledge further you can read more of Valesca Lima’s work on housing activism in Ireland through the following papers:

Lima, V. (2021) Urban austerity and activism: direct action against neoliberal housing policies Housing Studies 36(2) 258-277.

Lima, V. (2021) From housing crisis to housing justice: towards a radical right to a home Urban Studies 58(16) 3282-3298.