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The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine caused an escape of >7 million people to other European countries. In this extreme context, the accommodation of refugees has been an urgent need and an unexpected challenge for the host cities and societies. This short paper discusses insights and learnings on housing and accommodation of Ukraine war refugees at the local scale. It summarises challenges within the general management of (housing) integration, discusses related learnings from the hitherto coping mechanisms and sheds light on policy implications for the future by embedding the migration challenge of Ukrainian refugees into a wider context.

Green regeneration has become one of the most powerful strategies for improving the quality of life in cities, supporting climate change adaptation, and reducing the carbon footprints of cities. While it is the ambition of most green regeneration projects to create benefits for residents and users, reality shows that green regeneration also reinforces existing or even shapes new ‘green inequalities’. These can result from green gentrification and displacement, procedural injustices, and exclusion from participation or barriers to the access and use of newly created urban green spaces. Set against this background, the paper uses a conflict analysis perspective to look at the inequalities and injustices that evolve within the context of green regeneration. Applying social conflict theory, it seeks to understand (1) why and how green regeneration may lead to inequality and justice conflicts and (2) how conflict analysis helps to understand the nature and implications of green regeneration conflicts in more depth. As for its empirical foundation, the paper reanalyses empirical evidence that was examined in earlier projects on a residential area in the city of Leipzig, Germany.

Periods of forced migration to and in Europe have been common in the past decade and show no expectation of stalling due to ongoing armed conflicts, global inequalities and the adverse effects of climate change. Nevertheless, the provision of accommodation for asylum seekers and refugees continues to depend on temporary, ad hoc solutions. In the context of housing financialisation and shortage of affordable housing across European cities, this decreases opportunities for integration and securing other needs, such as jobs, language acquisition and childcare, but increases the risk of refugee homelessness and social exclusion. Based on cross-national Urban Living Labs exchanges in Leipzig, Riga, Lund, Helsingborg and Vienna, this commentary argues for a European agenda for long-term housing solutions for forced migrants in the arrival and settling phases that tackle issues from discrimination to access, to belonging. Importantly, creating long-term housing solutions for refugees would benefit whole housing systems as instruments of social inclusion.

Der Ansatz der grünen Gentrifizierung hat sich seit den 2000er-Jahren zu einem Forschungsstrang an der Schnittstelle von kritischer Wohnungsmarkt- und Stadtgrünforschung entwickelt. Im Kern geht es dabei die Analyse und Erklärung von direkter und indirekter Verdrängung als Folge grüner Aufwertung im Quartier oder grüner Wohnungsbauprojekte, was zu mehr Segregation und Ungleichheit und Ungerechtigkeit auf dem Wohnungsmarkt führt. Es geht um Kontexte, in denen Begrünung als Bestandteil immobilienmarktgetriebener Aufwertungs- und Immobilienmarktstrategien fungiert. Damit verknüpft der Ansatz die Perspektive der klassischen Gentrifizierungsforschung mit Prozessen der grünen und/oder blauen Aufwertung von Städten, etwa durch die Sanierung von Grünflächen oder Gewässern im Wohnumfeld oder durch grüne bzw. grün-blaue Wohnbauprojekte. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick zu Gegenstand und Debatte zur grünen Gentrifizierung und ihren wichtigsten Themen und Befunden. Darauf aufbauend wird diskutiert, welche Perspektiverweiterungen die Debatte zur grünen Gentrifizierung für die Umweltsoziologie bietet.