Housing crisis or capitalist crisis?

Anti-gentrification and the Left

Housing crisis or capitalist crisis?
On February 17, 2018, at the 4th Platypus European Conference, the following panel discussion was held at Goldsmiths University London, with Simon Elmer (Architects for Social Housing), Matthew Lee (Stop the Elephant Development; University College London Cut the Rent) and Austin Williams (Future Cities Project; author, China’s Urban Revolution). Opening remarks Simon Elmer: I want to focus on one question, which I think is coming into sharper focus in the UK, and which relates most closely to the attempts of Architects for Social Housing [ASH] to propose alternatives to London’s estate regeneration programme. [Read More]

Taking issue with identity

The politics of anti-gentrification

The perception of gentrification in Chicago mirrors would-be progressive groups’ social imaginations and the heterogeneity of their goals. Gentrification is the reconstitution of a neighborhood which occurs when lower-income areas with lower land value are re-developed with higher-value housing into a decidedly wealthier neighborhood. During this process the class-composition and character of the neighborhood is changed; those already living in the neighborhood cannot sustain the rise in property taxes and must move elsewhere. [Read More]