Areas of work

Social transformation processes are reflected in everyday living practices. At the same time, these are coped with, suffered from, and negotiated in everyday life. In addition, the built environment consistently structures the possibilities of how living spaces can be appropriated. In line with this concept, it brings together research projects that primarily examine, subject-centered, how the four current trends of change become visible in everyday living and change forms of appropriation of living space and the relationship between subjects and material structures.

We will also ask what socio-spatial conflicts and negotiations are involved, what everyday structuring effects structural-technical housing arrangements have, and how the dwellers re-appropriate the built environment in possibly contradictory ways.

Given the return of the housing question, the financialization of property structures, and the neoliberalization of housing and land policies, negotiation processes, and conflicts over the state regulation and social control of housing provision have recently become significantly more critical and explosive. This area of work problematizes how the four processes of change in housing and their spatial materialization are permeated by political regulation and social control or how these change.

The central question is the extent to which a new, possibly post-neoliberal phase of political negotiation processes concerning the design of housing provision in the face of contradictory economic, social, and ecological demands and interests can currently be identified, which differs significantly from both the Fordist and the neoliberal eras, and which specific spatial materializations this goes hand in hand with.

Housing, viewed to varying degrees as an economic or social good, is designed, planned, built, maintained, or adapted to changing needs and managed as a stock. Production and management practices vary considerably depending on their historical social formation, technological developments, and the structure of the actors involved in the construction and housing sector and forms of ownership.

Current needs for greening, flexibility, and diversification require research on reconciling the housing stock’s energetic renewal, maintenance, and ecological reprogramming with sustainable production methods in new construction while also addressing social demands for housing affordability. Simultaneously, we must consider which economic structures, practices, and interests hinder progress in this area. Besides, we should examine the social conflicts and negotiation processes that accompany these challenges and how they differ spatially between shrinking villages and cities.