Neoliberal reforms alter cities all the way down to their very urban form. This research expands our knowledge of residential mobility brought on by neoliberalizing forces by examining two particular approaches to housing reform that resulted in intense periods of residential mobility- the closure and demolition of public housing projects and relaxed regulations on mortgage lending practices which contributed to bursting the housing bubble and a steep rise in foreclosures. These events brought significant change to Atlanta's neighborhoods, leaving some with high rates of vacancy. Through GIS and qualitative research involving the analysis of semi-structured interviews with forty residents of four affected neighborhoods on the southwest side of Atlanta- Pittsburgh/Mechanicsville, English Avenue, Beecher Hills, and Greenbriar, this research will tell the story of how residents of these neighborhoods experienced being left behind by both outward residential mobility and the government agencies that no longer have the resources available to support neighborhood stability.

Division 8 is a prototype single player adventure game that challenges players to solve a story in a sci-fi fantasy world. Based on an Afrofuturist framework, Division 8 is designed to educate, engage and inform players on the affordable housing crisis. The concept of Division 8 is to parallel the section 8 housing vouchers system. In the United States, housing choice vouchers (popularly known as “Section 8”), subsidizes families’ rental payments so they can lease housing that they would otherwise not be able to afford.[1] Unlike games like the Redistricting game and the Westchester game that attempt to capture the housing crisis and housing history of the United States, Division 8 utilizes an interactive narrative to integrate players traveling through the reality of the public housing system. The objective of the game is to explore the convoluted paths and unravel the incentives of characters in the affordable housing crisis. Players will click through different character interactions and dialogue boxes to investigate, analyze and garner information. In making moves, players must consider not only the stories that will assist in solving the puzzle of surviving the housing system, but also the inherent knowledge and subtle clues that are embedded within the game’s framework. The end-state is reached once the player discovers the incentives of characters and ultimately, what decisions lead to the unsuccessful policies of the public housing system.

Following the collapse of property values and an increasing rate of default on high-risk mortgages, the United States experienced a subprime lending crisis that led to massive financial losses for holders of mortgage-backed securities. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine if loan product and loan amount predict the likelihood of loan foreclosure. The theoretical framework grounding the study was Minsky's financial instability hypothesis, which describes the basis of capitalism as economic expansionism followed by financial crises. The population consisted of 473 loan cases from archival data of the Atlanta Sixth Federal Reserve District in Georgia. The method used to collect the data was a probabilistic simple random sample taken from the archival data. The use of binary logistic regression resulted in a finding that the variables of loan product and loan amount significantly predicted the likelihood of loan foreclosure, Ï?2(4) = 10.65, p = .031, Nagelkerke R2 = .09. The Nagelkerke R2 value indicated that the model explained 9% of the variability in foreclosure. The findings specifically showed that Federal Housing Authority and Veterans Administration loan products were significantly more likely than conventional loans to cause losses for mortgage lenders. The implications for positive social change include increased stakeholder knowledge of various factors that can contribute to foreclosure and sustainment of community value with fewer homeowners losing their home in foreclosure.

The lack of affordable housing has been a long-standing problem for many cities in Sweden, and the recent refugee crisis has only highlighted the difficulties for economically weaker constituencies to enter and sustain in the existing housing market. The pressing situation and a new law, obligating the municipalities to supply housing, forced the authorities to look for solutions. The thesis investigates the recent changes and use of one of these offered solutions – temporary housing permits. Using a qualitative approach, it tries to capture both the formative-discursive processes and the material outcomes of this measure, in order to understand what informs the decision and its possible implications. The study employs theoretical concepts from Giorgio Agamben’s theory on the ‘state of exception’, as I consider them important for the understanding of the processes. The interventions in the housing system are made possible only by declaring that the shortage of housing is in an ‘exceptional situation’, one that can only be resolved with irregular practices, exceptions from standard norm and regular procedures. A look into the legal-formative mechanisms and the materialization of the temporary housing permits is given. The thesis argues that a wider perspective is needed and tries to bring into the discussion the political and social aspects of using a measure like this one. Although conceptualized as a quick and temporary remedy, it is maintained that the utilization of temporary housing permits can potentially have harmful long-lasting effects on the understanding of housing provision, living standards, and planning processes. This suggests that authorities have to be careful when using exceptional measures and calls for a fundamental and systemic re-thinking of housing in general.

Denna uppsats undersöker om förfarande vid förtätning på fastigheter som besväras av tomträtt har potentialen att avhjälpa den rådande bostads- och markbristen. Jordabalken innehåller i sitt 13:e kapitel, bestämmelser om tomträtt. En nyttjanderätt till en allmänt ägd fastighet i obestämd tid mot en avgäld i pengar. Tomträtten är unik bland nyttjanderätter då den delar många liknelser med äganderätt. Rättighetshavarens starka position sätter hinder för exploateringsförfaranden då det i dagsläget föreligger krav om att rättighetens parter måste komma överens om förändringar i avtalet. Även om tvångsmässiga förfaranden är möjligt skapar även där rättighetsinnehavarens starka position svårigheter för förändring i befintliga tomträtter. Denna studie finner att tomträtten har potential att avhjälpa bostads- och markbristen, men att denna potential kan förbättras genom förändringar i rådande bestämmelser. / This paper examines whether the practice of densification on properties encumbered by land right has the potential to remedy the current housing and land shortage. The Land Code contains in its 13th chapter provisions on land rights. A usufruct right to a publicly owned property for an indefinite period in return for a monetary compensation. The land right is unique among usufruct rights as it shares many similarities with ownership rights. The rights holder's strong position hinders exploitation procedures as there is currently a requirement that the parties of the right must agree on changes to the agreement. Although coercive procedures are possible, even there the strong position of the right holder creates difficulties for changes in existing land rights. This study finds that land rights have the potential to remedy the housing and land shortage, but that this potential can be improved through changes in existing regulations.

This thesis is an attempt to capture and understand how young people in Stockholm experience the housing market. It explores what housing policy decisions made by government actually do to people ‘on the ground.’ The research asks: How does the housing crisis manifest for young adults living in Stockholm?This study centers around interviews with 27 young people who are living at least part-time in greater Stockholm. All of these informants were between the ages of 23 and 30 (with the exception of one woman who was 32). The three chapters of this thesis are organized the three major social themes: independence vs. co-dependence; privilege and perception of ‘luck’; and discrimination and scamming. The results show clearly that the housing market does not only mean that people need to pay expensive rents or that some live at home with their parents. Rather, most of the informants lived in temporary and often suboptimal living conditions, and some had experienced emotional harm as a result. By focusing on something as personal as one’s home, this investigation led to discussions of such topics such as common understandings of Swedish society, relationship dynamics, and young people’s feelings about being “adult.”

No description available.

Municipal electorates across America are vocal, unrepresentative networks. With lower turnout rates than state and national elections, the local electoral process disproportionately elects white, older, home-owning officials. Voting and elected bodies align demographically, thus leading to a policy that disproportionately reflects the interests of white, older, home-owning voters (Levine Einstein, Ornstein, & Palmer, 2019). This cycle is problematic because it halts the passage of policy that reflects the interest of historically underrepresented voters: young people and people of color. I argue that, for local races, campaign methods disproportionately mobilize the social networks that white, older, home-owning voters belong to. Members of these groups disproportionately occupy low-density housing-building types that can be accessed and mobilized by all campaigns. I suggest a relationship exists between housing density and turnout, with voters residing in low-density housing participating at higher rates in local elections. Therefore, local races have smaller budgets and fewer reserves to invest in mobilizing voters residing in high-density housing. To assess this relationship, I compare housing density - whether a voter lives in low density or high-density housing - and individual voting records from 2017 to 2021 across four municipalities in Massachusetts: Cambridge, Boston, Somerville, and Worcester. I expect to find that compared to voters living in low-density housing, those residing in high-density housing - disproportionately young voters and voters of color - are turning out at lower rates in local elections than in the 2018 Midterm and 2020 Presidential Elections. To change this cycle, scholars must pay more attention to the role housing density plays in inhibiting local mobilization efforts, and campaigns must collaborate to mobilize voting members of all social networks, especially those residing in high-density housing.

Historical work on British war brides has been limited to the creation and collection of nostalgic interview anthologies; often by the women themselves or their children. These anthologies focus on the meeting of Canadian servicemen and British women and the women’s journey to and reunion with their husbands in Canada. Discussions of life in Canada and negative experiences are only briefly mentioned. This dissertation argues that this nostalgic view of war brides in the historical literature hides the immigration, settlement, and citizenship challenges faced by these women in Canada during and after the Second World War. Reception of war brides by the Canadian government and public was not as positive as the current scholarship has suggested. While some war brides flourished in Canada, others experienced adaptational problems, including differences in language and religion, navigating Canada’s housing crisis, and hostile in-laws. A few women also experienced problems related to abandonment, abuse, or husbands with undiagnosed post traumatic stress disorder. Since divorce was difficult to get at the time, these women tended to suffer in silence. Some war brides and their children even experienced problems with their citizenship, due to sexist provisions in the Canadian Citizenship Act in 1946, and changes to the Act in 1976, which made proof of citizenship necessary for all Canadians; something that many war brides were unaware of. This dissertation examines the creation and evolution of Canadian citizenship from a perspective that highlights its initial racism and sexism, as well as the consistent bureaucratic bungling regarding the application of its provisions since 1947. While these cases were fixed by amendments to the Citizenship Act in 2008 and 2014 by the Harper government, the citizenship conundrums that this community faced raise interesting questions about what citizenship means and who gets to be a Canadian citizen. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / Most historical work about British war brides has been overly nostalgic and focussed on the collection and creation of interview anthologies; often created by these women and their children. Discussions of life in Canada and negative experiences are only briefly mentioned. This dissertation argues that this nostalgic view of war brides in the historical literature hides the immigration, settlement, and citizenship challenges faced by these women in Canada during and after the Second World War. The different experiences of these women reveal biases towards their background and gender, relationships damaged by the trauma of war, bureaucratic incompetence in the immigration and citizenship process, and raises important questions about national belonging and the nature of Canadian citizenship, from the post-war period to the present.

Magister Artium - MA / This mini thesis seeks to explore two legacies of apartheid: the insecurity of decent and available housing that has led to a housing crisis, and the insecurity of Coloured identity as caused by apartheid’s racial and identity politics and its aftermath in a democratic South Africa. Furthermore, it is an examination of identity and its relation to place, specifically Coloured identity in the place of Cape Town. It focuses the ripple effect of belonging, as this research starts with Cape Town then expands to further find cause for this growing cause of belonging by focusing on racism, the housing crisis, nation-building, globalisation, capitalism. Through interviews and archival research, I explore questions of belonging, identity, and its relation to the housing crisis in Cape Town. This is done through a case study of tensions that erupted in Siqalo, in Mitchell’s Plain on 1 May 2018. Siqalo is a land occupation of isiXhosa speakers in the apartheid-era ‘Coloured’ area of Mitchell’s Plain in Cape Town. When Siqalo residents organised a protest around issues of electricity and housing they faced violent retaliation by neighbouring community and residents of Colorado, populated mainly by people classified as Coloured, with claims being made by an organisation called Gatvol Capetonians for Siqalo residents to return to Eastern Cape. I examine the role of identity in the creation of narratives of Cape Town and establish two narratives, one in which Cape Town is represented as a home for all and one in which it is not, this is done to show how belonging is made through identity and narrative and the effect that this creates. This comes to frame this mini-thesis as the question of a home is represented in the symbolic and physical sense and highlights the tension between Gatvol’s protest of Coloured belonging and Siqalo residents’ protest for decent housing. Chapter Two reflects on this through the use of interviews from both sides of the protest. This chapter is written as an imagined debate that not only reflects on critiques of oral history but ways of writing history experimentally or speculatively Through investigating the source of the tension from the Siqalo protest, I argue that desegregation was, in theory, one of the first nation-building projects in South Africa, and its failure has deepened apartheid and colonial forms of classification that divide people. The views of Mahmood Mamdani, while rarely applied to African people classified as Coloured, are very important, as his book, Citizen and Subject was a premise for this research as it highlighted the pitfalls and requirements of African countries after independence from colonialism. At the same time, the literature on Coloured identity rarely brings up the question whether Coloureds can and do practice racism on those classified as black or African and how these categorisations have persisted in the post-apartheid era. This research asks: to what extent do present conditions enable a predatory dynamic to claims of Coloured identity? Based off the predatory argument which focuses on intensified competition for scarce resources under globalisation put forward by Arjun Appadurai, I highlight the influence that contemporary globalisation has had on both the dynamics of Coloured identity and on the housing crisis in Cape Town. This mini thesis concludes by providing two alternatives as to how the question of race can be assessed in South Africa.