Claiming the right to dignity : New organizations for housing justice in neoliberal Sweden

The lack of affordable housing for people with low income, shrinkingpublic resources, and new political conflicts threaten the availability ofhousing, at the same time as aggressive forms of urban renewal arecausing displacement through ‘renoviction’, putting tenants in criticalsituations. In this article, we focus on the acts of resistance and newsocial organization trends that have emerged in relation to the praxis ofrenoviction used by landlords and other local authorities, and thefrustration caused by this praxis. We claim that these new forms oforganization are using the concept of renoviction in articulating currentstruggles for housing justice. Methodologically, we point out thenecessity of urban research conducted in close collaboration withactivism, as a way for mutual learning and support. Moreover, wesuggest that these acts of resistance should be understood as happeningwithin a broader context of economic and political changes affectingthe housing market, and in relation to the increased racialization ofpoverty and territorial stigmatization in Swedish cities. To illustrate andthen strive to understand the ongoing resistance and demands forhousing justice, we focus on national activist networks emerging inresponse to the neoliberal housing crisis. We maintain that emergingresistance in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Uppsala represents agrowing claim for housing justice. This resistance is based on people’severyday lives and is a cry for dignity in neighborhoods neglected byhousing companies.
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