E-Module Chapter 3: Eviction & Displacement

This chapter deals with evictions and displacement, discussing related processes, implications as well as policies. As part of this e-module, we invite you to engage further with the aspects introduced in the textbook. 

Consolidating Knowledge

• Key Concepts: Chapter 3 discusses the dynamics relating to evictions and displacement. Have a look at this exercise to check your knowledge of important concepts introduced. 
• Reflection Task. Gentrification: What is the nature of gentrification, what are factors causing it? Reflect on an example of your choice.

Listening In

• PusH Podcast - Episode 5. Evictions and Displacement in London: In this episode of the PusH Podcast, we interview Prof. Paul Watt, professor of urban studies in the department of geography at Birkbeck, on his work around evictions and displacement. We discuss the work he has been doing on displacement and youth homelessness around the Olympics in East London and zoom in on the conceptual link between labour precarity and housing precarity. We also discuss gender and precarious housing and talk about his latest book called Estate Regeneration and its Discontents. Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London.
• External Podcast. Squatters, Eviction and Extortion in Catalonia: This episode of The Documentary Podcast by the BBC discusses how Catalonia’s housing crisis spawns opportunities for organised crime.
• External Podcast. 99% Invisible. Chapter 5 - Housing Finally: In the final chapter of 99% Invisible's episode series on housing in the San Francisco/Bay Area, the reader hears the first-hand account of Kate Cody's experience as a chronically homeless individual. Kate recounts her experiences being evicted and displaced from various informal housing situations and the process of acquiring a permanent living situation with her recently received housing ticket.
  

Getting Active

Digging Deeper

• Data. Eviction Map Brussels: This is an ongoing research project on housing eviction in Brussels which collects data from different Brussels courts for the year 2018. It is the only current European eviction mapping project (cf. the assignment in the section 'Getting active', which contains several additional mapping projects from other regions).
• Further Reading. Squatters and Municipal Policies to Reduce Vacancy; Evidence from The Netherlands: This article from the Delft University of Technology outlines the history of anti-squatting legislation in the Netherlands.
• Further Reading. Resilience in Local Housing Policy? Liberal or Restrictive Policy Stances Among Swedish Municipalities: In this paper, the authors conduct a theoretically grounded analysis of local housing policy for refugees among Swedish municipalities, arguing, that local housing policy has offered municipalities a tool to exert a form of  migration control.
• Homepage. Squat.net: The page is a free hosting site for different squatting movements around the world. Squatting is a rogue and informal process that can be difficult to track. This link will send you to a page for squatting-related news in Amsterdam. Check out the different tags for cities across the EU to see how different groups utilize this platform.
• Video. Ted Talk 'What if the Poor Were Part of City Planning?': This Ted Talk given by Smruti Jukur Johari, an Indian urban planner, considers how city planning can and should include the needs and desires of the poor.
• Video. Ted Talk 'Who Belongs in a City?': In this Ted Talk, OluTimehin Adegbeye explores Lagos' goal of eradicating poverty by means of criminalizing and displacing it. She offers hope for a new image of a developed, flourishing city, one that has space for all its citizens.