Socially sustainable housing and urban development – a global challenge
This application for a sabbatical grant, aims to finalize empirical work in Los Angeles, USA, and finish the writing of two scientific books, one in Swedish and one in English. The topic for the books are the state of the arts in the racialization of the Swedish city in the first case, and in the second book, the focus is international comparisons of urban development. The books have in common that the thematic is housing and urban development from a perspective of social sustainability and from the bottom up. This means that the main actors of the research are the residents of the contemporaneous cities at stake. The places included are three: Uppsala, for the first book in Swedish; Santiago de Chile and Los Angeles, plus Uppsala in the case of the second book. The books are based on earlier and current research consisting on ethnographic work in the three cities. Background information and secondary data, both qualitative and quantitative is also used. The application is aimed to finance a stay at UCLA in the Spring of 2021, at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy, under the hosting of Prof. Ananya Roy.
Final report
Scientific results
This funding from RJ had a two-folded aim: on the one hand, it was aimed to finalize empirical work in Los Angeles, USA; on the other hand, it would help to finish the writing of two scientific books, one in Swedish and one in English. The funding financed a six-months stay as a guest professor at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy, at UCLA, during the Spring of 2021, under the hosting of Prof. Ananya Roy, which was fulfilled. It was an extension of my sabbatical year, which had been going on between February 2020 and January 2021, financed with other funding, but considerable affected by the COVID-10 pandemic.
The aims were fulfilled to a satisfying extent in both directions. Regarding the field work in LA, it was planned to consist on an intensive ethnographic study in the district of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. The work of the collective of researchers and residents of Boyle Heights is, notwithstanding its interesting and relevant local and national particularities, very similar to the collaborative work of residents, activists and researchers in some cities in many other locations globally (Rolnik, 2019). The similarities consist on that all of these are places experiencing expensive urban renovation of previously poor, racialized and socially segregated areas, with the corollary of high rent increases, gentrification and displacement of the existing population, which my host Prof. Ananya Roy, have in recent years been conceptualizing as “racial banishment”. I have been studying this phenomenon for more than 35 years in several local neighbourhoods in Sweden and previously in Santiago de Chile.
Unfortunately, due to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, I was impeded to make the ethnographic fielwork in Boyle Heights and needed to rethink and adapt to the new conditions imposed by the pandemic. Therefore, I had to re-configure the study, conducting field work online, successfully through following several urban activist organizations mobilizing online. In this online fieldwork I collected notes from, and in some cases was able to record, a total of about 100 meetings held online. The analysis of the material showed that the housing justice organizations had resiliently adapted to the conditions of the pandemic, and found innovative and interesting new ways of organizing. Although the local associations had missed the face-to-face contact, they had experienced advantages in terms of the regional and inter-regional scope of action gained from online activism.
Regarding the work with the two planned manuscripts, the topics for the books are: the state of the arts in the processes of racialization of the Swedish city in the first case, whereas in the second book, the focus is international comparisons of urban development. The books have in common that they in different ways thematise housing and urban development from a social sustainability and a bottom up perspective. This means that the main actors of the research are the residents of the cities at stake. The places included in the books are three: Uppsala, for the first book in Swedish; and a relational study including Santiago de Chile and Los Angeles, plus Uppsala in the case of the second book. The analysis is based on earlier and recent research material generated through different forms of qualitative and quantitative sources of information. The qualitative researched has consisted on ethnographic studies, participation action research, PAR, both IRL and online, and archival work. The quantitative work covered both self-generated data for the earlier studies in Chile, and official neighbourhood data in the case of Sweden (updated later on by register data), and secondary data sources in all three cases. The manuscripts are almost finished, and a contract is already signed with one Swedish publisher, in the case of the first book in Swedish, while the book in English is still in its final phase of writing.
Finally, in spite of the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the stay at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy, at UCLA was of an enormous importance for the exchange of knowledge with the scholars at UCLA, as well as it contributed to the consolidation of international networks for future research collaboration, opening up possibilities of exchange for PhD students and young researchers from Sweden.
This funding from RJ had a two-folded aim: on the one hand, it was aimed to finalize empirical work in Los Angeles, USA; on the other hand, it would help to finish the writing of two scientific books, one in Swedish and one in English. The funding financed a six-months stay as a guest professor at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy, at UCLA, during the Spring of 2021, under the hosting of Prof. Ananya Roy, which was fulfilled. It was an extension of my sabbatical year, which had been going on between February 2020 and January 2021, financed with other funding, but considerable affected by the COVID-10 pandemic.
The aims were fulfilled to a satisfying extent in both directions. Regarding the field work in LA, it was planned to consist on an intensive ethnographic study in the district of Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. The work of the collective of researchers and residents of Boyle Heights is, notwithstanding its interesting and relevant local and national particularities, very similar to the collaborative work of residents, activists and researchers in some cities in many other locations globally (Rolnik, 2019). The similarities consist on that all of these are places experiencing expensive urban renovation of previously poor, racialized and socially segregated areas, with the corollary of high rent increases, gentrification and displacement of the existing population, which my host Prof. Ananya Roy, have in recent years been conceptualizing as “racial banishment”. I have been studying this phenomenon for more than 35 years in several local neighbourhoods in Sweden and previously in Santiago de Chile.
Unfortunately, due to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, I was impeded to make the ethnographic fielwork in Boyle Heights and needed to rethink and adapt to the new conditions imposed by the pandemic. Therefore, I had to re-configure the study, conducting field work online, successfully through following several urban activist organizations mobilizing online. In this online fieldwork I collected notes from, and in some cases was able to record, a total of about 100 meetings held online. The analysis of the material showed that the housing justice organizations had resiliently adapted to the conditions of the pandemic, and found innovative and interesting new ways of organizing. Although the local associations had missed the face-to-face contact, they had experienced advantages in terms of the regional and inter-regional scope of action gained from online activism.
Regarding the work with the two planned manuscripts, the topics for the books are: the state of the arts in the processes of racialization of the Swedish city in the first case, whereas in the second book, the focus is international comparisons of urban development. The books have in common that they in different ways thematise housing and urban development from a social sustainability and a bottom up perspective. This means that the main actors of the research are the residents of the cities at stake. The places included in the books are three: Uppsala, for the first book in Swedish; and a relational study including Santiago de Chile and Los Angeles, plus Uppsala in the case of the second book. The analysis is based on earlier and recent research material generated through different forms of qualitative and quantitative sources of information. The qualitative researched has consisted on ethnographic studies, participation action research, PAR, both IRL and online, and archival work. The quantitative work covered both self-generated data for the earlier studies in Chile, and official neighbourhood data in the case of Sweden (updated later on by register data), and secondary data sources in all three cases. The manuscripts are almost finished, and a contract is already signed with one Swedish publisher, in the case of the first book in Swedish, while the book in English is still in its final phase of writing.
Finally, in spite of the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the stay at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy, at UCLA was of an enormous importance for the exchange of knowledge with the scholars at UCLA, as well as it contributed to the consolidation of international networks for future research collaboration, opening up possibilities of exchange for PhD students and young researchers from Sweden.