Inconspicuous transformations: the socio-spatial reconfiguration of ‘formal’ housing in Europe

Housing across Europe is becoming increasingly unaffordable, particularly in prosperous, growing and densely populated cities. Based on its ongoing commodification, diminishing delivery of social flats as well as associated processes of gentrification, people are pushed to rely on precarious 'hidden' housing markets. Although largely unrecognized in policy and academic discourses, these markets have become an essential source of accommodation not only for the truly marginalized groups but also for the middle classes with relatively stable incomes. In this way, the new habitation and spatial practices extend beyond clearly informal and marginal solutions such as squats or makeshift settlements and become common among housing formats conventionally understood as formal. This project works toward a better understanding of such inconspicuous housing transformations in the context of three countries representing diverse attitudes to these phenomena (stronger control, deregulation, toleration). It aims to document the types of socio-spatial changes in the current housing markets in these contexts, revitalize theoretical debate, develop tools for measuring these phenomena, and popularize knowledge about housing struggles in Europe.