Urban Housing in Central and Southeastern Europe

About

This Summer School focuses on recent developments in urban housing markets: how do financialisation, economic crisis and austerity policies impinge upon housing provision? How do these forces translate into patterns of sub-/re-urbanisation, segregation and gentrification? Against the backdrop of these general questions, the Summer School enquires into the conditions that frame housing markets, showing a strong variation amongst European cities.

THE CITIES – VIENNA, BELGRADE, ATHENS
Vienna, Belgrade and Athens: The Summer School focuses on the housing markets in three European metropolises, which are characterised by different historic pathways and market structures, and which are embedded in different regulative frames and policies. Vienna is dominated by a rental market with strong regulations and by a large social housing submarket. In contrast, Belgrade displays a radical transformation towards a ownership market with weak regulations. Finally, the Greek capital Athens was highly affected during the Euro-crisis, with implications for the housing market.

CONCEPT
The participants of this Summer School will gain deep insights into the specific urban housing markets of the three cities – its structures, actors and societal frames. In this programme, students will explore housing issues in the three metropolises and link them to general debates in urban studies. The Summer School wants to address the following perspectives on housing markets:

(1) Structures: Historic structures and recent dynamics of urban housing and office markets

(2) Actors: Interplay of public and private actors, international investors and investment strategies, production networks

(3) Society & Policies: Social implications, regulative frames, urban protests

(4) Transformation of urban spaces: urban large scale projects, gentrification and segregation

Course leader

Organisation: Austrian Academy of Sciences Contact: urbanhousing(at)oeaw.ac.at Team Vienna: Robert Musil, Walter Matznetter, Judith Schnelzer Team Belgrade: Ivan Ratkaj, Emilija Manic, Aljosa Budovic Team Athens: Thomas Maloutas, George Kandylis

Target group

The Summer School is open to Masters and PhD-students from disciplines such as geography, history, architecture, anthropology and other disciplines focussing on different aspects of housing and real estate dynamics in an urban context. We invite students who are interested in the mutual links between physical and social structures, in particular the transformations on the housing market and its economic and social dynamics.

To allow a better creditability for students, this summer school is accredited by the University of Vienna as a "univie-summerschool"

Course aim

How do general urban trends in housing vary – including increasing price cycles, more international investors and developers, and more large-scale projects – and what are their implications for the three metropolises? Can recent and historic dynamics on urban housing markets in all three cities be explained adequately? To answer these questions, the Summer School focuses on two aims: first, it wants to gain insights into recent developments and the historic genesis of urban housing and office markets in the three cities. Second, beyond empirical issues, it discusses the challenges of a comparative urban housing research and reflects the transferability of urban theories.