Click on the publication title to download a publication. If you don’t have access, send me a message.
Kadi, J. & J. Lilius (2022) The remarkable stability of social housing in Vienna and Helsinki: A multi-dimensional analysis. Housing Studies.
The supply of social housing has been marked by erosion and decline in most Western Europe countries since the 1990s, albeit with considerable variation in timing, speed and degree. Recently, it has been suggested that the sector has kept a more prominent position at the local level, at least in some cities. This paper scrutinizes this claim by comparing the development of social housing in two cities in two distinct national housing systems that have traditionally had a strong commitment to social housing: Vienna and Helsinki. To do so, we build a multi-dimensional framework that encompasses sector size, stock privatization, new housing production, and residualization. We empirically demonstrate a remarkable stability along these dimensions in both cases, albeit with some differences in degree. A number of factors need to be considered to explain this stability. They relate to aspects of institutional design of the social housing systems, as well as to continuity in policies at national and local levels.
Kadi, J., S. Banabak & A. Schneider (2022). Widening gaps? Socio-spatial inequality in the ‘very’ European city of Vienna since the financial crisis. CITIES. doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.103887
While European cities were long argued to have moderate levels of socio-spatial inequality, recent years have seen a growing assertion that such inequalities are on the rise. Structural shifts on labor and housing markets since the financial crisis suggest that this trend has further intensified since 2008, but empirical evidence has so far been scarce. This paper examines the case of the “very” European city of Vienna, which, like other European cities, has experienced rising inequality on the labor market and the housing market since the onset of the crisis. Drawing on compound indices, GIS mapping, regression analyses and several inequality metrics as well as a small-scale level of analysis, we demonstrate that socio-spatial inequality has increased in terms of a growing distance between the socio-economic status of spatial units. This is particularly caused by lower status areas that lose ground against the rest of the city. We do not only provide novel empirical evidence on socio-spatial inequality in a major European city after the financial crisis, but also enrich existing methodological frameworks for such an analysis in various ways. The paper concludes with discussing the broader implications of our findings for the debate on socio-spatial inequalities in European cities.
Kadi, J. & W. Matznetter (2022). The long history of gentrification in Vienna, 1890-2020. City – Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 26(2-3): 450-472.
This article distinguishes between six historical phases of gentrification in Vienna. These phases emanate from shifting demographic, economic and housing policy circumstances that have decisively shaped gentrification dynamics in the city. Vienna is a rather unusual context compared to cities that are typically in the focus of gentrification research: for considerable parts of the 20th century, the city experienced pronounced demographic decline and economic stagnation. Meanwhile, strong state intervention from the 1920s onwards has shaped the urban housing market. We show how these particular circumstances have moulded gentrification processes throughout the past 130 years. We draw three broader arguments from our analysis: first, there is great value in historicizing gentrification research. Not only does it add empirical evidence to whether and how gentrification functioned prior to it first being mentioned in 1960s London, but also offers a substantial insight into current mechanisms of gentrification. In Vienna, institutions, rules and buildings from earlier periods persist and continue to exert considerable influence on the specificities of gentrification dynamics today. Second, the Vienna case highlights the need to develop more locally specific periodizations of gentrification that give more consideration to contextual circumstances. Third, the analysis points to two specific forms of neighbourhood downgrading since 1890, which are relevant in Vienna and possibly also in other cities: ‘incumbent downgrading’ for 1918–1938, and ‘reverse gentrification’ for the atrocities of Nazi housing policy between 1938 and 1945.
Kadi, J., Banabak, S. und Schneider, A. E. (2022). Eine indikatorbasierte Identifizierung von Gentrifizierungsgebieten in Wien. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Wien, Österreich, 48(1), S. 23–57. Available online: https://journals.akwien.at/wug/article/view/92
Vor dem Hintergrund der steigenden Relevanz und Aufmerksamkeit für Gentrifizierung wurden in den letzten Jahren vermehrt Methoden entwickelt, um Gentrifizierungsgebiete zu identifizieren. Die vorliegende Studie entwickelt, aufbauend auf dem internationalen Forschungsstand, erstmals eine Methode zur quantitativen Identifizierung solcher Gebiete in Wien und wendet diese auf Basis von kleinräumigen sozioökonomischen und immobilienwirtschaftlichen Daten für den Zeitraum 2011 bis 2016 an. Neben den empirischen Befunden bietet die Studie damit eine methodische Innovation gegenüber der vorhandenen Forschung zu Gentrifizierung in Wien, die sich bis dato auf Fallstudien einzelner Viertel oder Sektoren am Wohnungsmarkt beschränkt. Darüber hinaus leistet die Studie einen Beitrag zur breiteren sozialgeographischen Stadtforschung in Wien, die bisher vorwiegend auf sozioökonomische Veränderungen fokussiert und immobilienwirtschaftliche Veränderungen nicht näher in den Blick nimmt. Die Ergebnisse werden vor dem Hintergrund der vorhandenen Literatur diskutiert und offene Fragen für die zukünftige Forschung zu Gentrifizierung in Wien identifiziert.
Kadi, J. (2021). Wie Verdrängung verhindern? Eine kritische Betrachtung der Wiener Wohnungspolitik [How to prevent displacement? A critical perspective on Vienna’s housing policies]. In Glatter, J. & M. Miessner (Eds.) Gentrifizierung und Verdrängung, Bielefeld: transcript.
Im Zentrum des Beitrags stehen drei wohnungspolitische Instrumente in Wien: Der soziale Wohnbau, das Stadterneuerungsprogramm der »sanften« Stadterneuerung sowie das österreichische Mietrecht. Zentrales Argument des Beitrags ist es, dass diese Instrumente in der spezifischen Form, wie sie im Wiener Kontext eingesetzt werden, einen wichtigen Einfluss darauf haben, dass Verdrängungsprozesse in der Stadt eingeschränkt werden. Alle drei Instrumente haben allerdings Lücken, die sich mit der Neoliberalisierung der Stadt- und Wohnungspolitik, wie sie auch in Wien seit den 1990er-Jahren zu beobachten ist, vergrößert haben und die zugleich von der Immobilienwirtschaft zunehmend ausgenutzt werden.
Kadi, J., Vollmer, L., & Stein, S. (2021). Post-neoliberal housing policy? Disentangling recent reforms in New York, Berlin and Vienna. European Urban and Regional Studies.
In cities worldwide, the housing question has returned. As demands and proposals by housing movements have grown bolder, city governments are implementing new policies, ranging from small tweaks to major overhauls. This paper takes a close look at New York City, Berlin and Vienna, assessing their current housing policy landscapes. We evaluate to what extent those cities’ recent housing reforms depart from the dominant, neoliberal policy landscape of recent decades and can be categorized as ‘post-neoliberal’. We do so through the criteria of affordability, decommodification and democratization. The three selected cities display varying histories of housing systems and neoliberalization, enabling us to search for post-neoliberal policies in three distinct institutional contexts. We find a common pattern across cases: recent reforms have improved affordability and dampened hyper-commodification, but little has been done to address the democratization of housing and planning systems. By way of conclusion, we discuss some of the structural factors that impede attempts at developing a genuinely post-neoliberal transformation of local housing policies.
Kadi, J, Schneider, A & R Seidl (2020). Short-term Rentals, Housing Markets and COVID-19: Theoretical Considerations and Empirical Evidence from Four Austrian Cities. Critical Housing Analysis 7(2), 47-57.
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, evidence on the conversion of regular rental housing into permanent holiday homes has fuelled concerns that Airbnb and other short-term rentals contribute to the shortage of affordable homes and to the displacement of regular residents in cities with high housing demand. When the pandemic set in, the media was quick to speculate that holiday homes would be returned to the regular rental market. This paper provides some theoretical reflections on the factors that are driving and impeding such a development and presents preliminary results from an ongoing research project that empirically traces the impacts of COVID-19 on the rental housing market based on an analysis of real estate listings in four large Austrian cities. We argue that a current shift to the regular rental market is likely, but that the medium-and long-term development is uncertain. Empirically, we demonstrate that such a shift has occurred in all four cities considered. We do not find evidence, however, that the increased rental housing supply has dampened rent levels.
Kadi, Justin (2020). Wiener Wohnungspolitik: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen aktueller Reformansätze. Kurswechsel , 19(4): 25-34.
In Reaktion auf steigende Wohnungsprobleme und breitere öffentliche Diskussion hat Wien unterschiedliche Maßnahmen zur Bereitstellung von leistbarem Wohnraum implementiert. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt zentrale Reformansätze genauer vor und fragt, inwiefern sie geeignet sind um den zuletzt dominanten Entwicklungspfad zu verlassen, der durch Vermarktwirtschaftlichung und steigende Wohnkostenbelastung für untere und mittlere Einkommensgruppen gekennzeichnet ist. Die Frage ist also, inwiefern die Reformansätze tragfähig sind um die marktferne Bereitstellung von Wohnraum umfangreich zu stärken und das Angebot an leistbaren Wohnraum umfassend auszuweiten. Der Beitrag endet mit einem kurzen Ausblick auf vielversprechende aktuelle Strategien für eine progressive Wohnungspolitik in anderen europäischen Städten.
Kadi, Justin; Hochstenbach, Cody & Chris Lennartz (2020). Multiple property ownership in times of late homeownership: a new conceptual vocabulary. International Journal of Housing Policy, 20(1): 6-24.
The number of individuals and households that own an additional property beyond their primary home is on the rise in several countries. However, recent studies have been inconsistent in describing such properties, referring, for instance, to the return of private small-scale landlordism, the proliferation of second homes, or the significance of dwellings that are held as investment properties. Rarely are these disparate issues considered together, either theoretically or empirically. This special issue mobilizes the concept of multiple property ownership (MPO) to provide a more integrated analysis. In this introduction to the special issue we propose multiple property ownership as a conceptual banner that includes second homes, buy-to-let properties, holiday rentals, intergenerational support properties and safe deposit box properties. While these properties may differ considerably in terms of purpose and use, we argue that they are part of a broader proliferation of property wealth accumulation at the household level. Considering multiple properties together can motivate a deeper understanding of property wealth concentration and changing property relations in the post-crisis context. We introduce a typology of multiple property ownership, discuss the consumption and investment value of different property types, and outline some drivers of multiple property ownership, before considering implications for housing research. We end with a brief discussion of the five articles in this special issue and how they deepen current understanding of multiple property ownership.
Kadi, Justin; Banabak, Selim & Leonhard Plank (2020) Die Rückkehr der Wohnungsfrage in Österreich. BEIGEWUM Factsheet VII, BEIGEWUM.
Die Wohnungsfrage wird aktuell wieder viel diskutiert. Im benachbarten Deutschland werden wohnungspolitische Reformen besonders heftig gefordert. Die Vorschläge reichen von neuen Mietzinsbeschränkungen, einer umfangreichen Ausweitung des Sozialwohnungsbestands, bis hin zur Enteignung großer Immobilienkonzerne. Dabei wird oftmals neidvoll nach Österreich geblickt. Im Gegensatz zu Deutschland wurde in Österreich etwa die gemeinnützige Wohnungswirtschaft nicht abgeschafft. Auch Privatisierungen von sozialem Wohnbau wurden nicht im gleichen Ausmaß betrieben, obwohl durch den Verkauf der Bundeswohnungen unter der schwarz-blauen Regierung Anfang der 2000er auch in Österreich rund 60.000 Wohnungen privatisiert wurden. Nichtsdestotrotz zeigen sich auch in Österreich in den letzten Jahren eine Reihe an Verschiebungen im Wohnungssystem, die eine ausreichende Versorgung mit Wohnraum für untere und mittlere Einkommensgruppen unterminieren.
Kadi, Justin; Plank, Leonhard & Roman Seidl (2019) Airbnb as a tool for inclusive tourism? Tourism Geographies, online first.
Airbnb prominently argues to promote more inclusive forms of tourism through enabling ordinary households to occasionally share their home with tourists. This conventional understanding of ‘home-sharing’ has been challenged, however, with critics arguing that property owners and landlords use the platform for the commercial provision of permanent holiday homes. This article uses Airbnb provision practices and the dichotomy of ‘home-sharing’ and commercial provision as an empirical entry point into the debate to what extent Airbnb promotes more inclusive tourism development. While existing studies on Airbnb provision practices in the European context have predominantly focused on the major tourism centres with the biggest tourism numbers, we consider a second-rank European tourist city with a rapidly growing Airbnb supply, Vienna, Austria. Methodologically, we critically review and extend common approaches to identify commercial practices. Based on a new dataset of Airbnb listings, quantitative statistics and GIS, we find that, in Vienna, the notion of ‘home-sharing’ is insufficient to fully explain the characteristics of the Airbnb supply, with commercial practices playing a considerable part, yet in geographically uneven ways. Our extended methodological framework provides further, more differentiated insights into provision practices than previous studies. We conclude by relating our findings back to debates on inclusive tourism development and discuss questions for further research.
Kadi, Justin (2019) Which cities are studied? Probing the geographical scope of 40 years of gentrification research. Der Öffentliche Sektor – The Public Sector 45(1), 49-54.
Picking up on debates about the narrow geographical focus of gentrification research, this paper pro-bes the geographical scope of internationally published gentrification research over the last forty years. While recent critique of geographical selectivity has particularly addressed the Global North/South divide, we focus on differences within the Global North and analyze the relevance of different European capital cities (all EU28 capitals). We conduct a bibliometric analysis based on the SCOPUS database. The analysis is structured along three dimensions: the development of publication output over time across all cities (1), the number of publications on different cities across the whole period of analysis (2) and the development of publications in different cities over time (3). We find a highly skewed distribution of pub-lication output on gentrification in European capital cities, dominated by London and three other West European cities. The longitudinal analysis reveals, however, that the geographical scope has become broader in recent years.
Getzner, Michael & Justin Kadi (2019) Determinants of land consumption in Austria and the effects of spatial planning regulations. European Planning Studies, online first.
A substantial area of permanently habitable land in Austria is already sealed to be used for residential, commercial, and infrastructural purposes. Although the annual land consumption used for these purposes has slightly decreased over the last 20 years, it is still at an alarmingly high rate. In 1996, the daily land consumption corresponded to over 30 hectares, while it dropped to about 10 hectares in 2016. In this paper the determinants of land consumption were confirmed within the econometric framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). In the EKC it is assumed that there is an inverted-U shaped connection between the GDP and land consumption. In this conceptual framework, the effectiveness of spatial planning frameworks, such as the Austrian Spatial Development Concept (ÖREK), was tested. The results show that, in Austria, there is a general trend towards a decrease in land consumption. The effectiveness of spatial planning frameworks is, however, not discernible from the general influence of an increase in the GDP. Both the increasing scarcity of land (reflected in the increasing land prices) and the increased efficiency of the use of land (as a result of population density and urbanization), contribute to the reduction of land consumption. This indicates that additional and more effective policy instruments, such as brownfield and inward development, land mobilization strategies, higher land taxes and urban contractual agreements are all urgently needed to reduce land consumption to much lower sustainable levels.
Kadi, Justin & Johannes Suitner (2019). Red Vienna, 1919-1934. In: Orum, A. (Ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Research, doi/abs/10.1002/9781118568446.eurs0259.
“Red Vienna” refers to a phase of urban development in Vienna, Austria, between 1919 and 1934. Inspired by ideas of municipal socialism, the Social Democratic Workers’ Party implemented local social reforms to improve the living conditions of the working class. Policies were aimed particularly at the fields of housing, welfare, and healthcare, as well as education. While Red Vienna came to an end more than 80 years ago, the reforms continue to shape Vienna’s urban development today. Moreover, Red Vienna remains a key reference point in contemporary debates about egalitarian and progressive modes of urban planning.
Vollmer, Lisa & Justin Kadi (2018) Post-neoliberal shift or selective pacification measures? Housing policies in the crisis of neoliberalism in Berlin and Vienna, PROKLA 48(191): 247-264.
Against the backdrop of rising housing problems and protests, the comparative paper asks to what extent a paradigmatic shift in housing policies towards greater decommodifcation of housing has been initiated in Berlin and Vienna. Recent housing policies in both cities are discussed and evaluated with reference to the emerging debate about post-neoliberalism in housing.
Ronald, Richard & Justin Kadi (2018) The revival of private landlords in Britain’s post-homeownership society, New Political Economy, 23(6): 786-803.
Homeownership has been declining in favour of private renting in most developed English speaking countries since the early-2000s. Public debates in countries like Britain, Australia and the US have subsequently focused on the ostensible coming of age of ‘generation rent’, constituted of younger individuals excluded from home buying and traditional routes to housing asset accumulation. While the focus of this paper is the significance of access to housing assets as a means to offset potential economic and welfare precarity, our concern is landlords rather than tenants. Drawing on British survey data we show that the rental boom has been accompanied by increasing multiple property ownership among classes of largely middle-aged and relatively affluent households. Over one-million small-time landlords have emerged in the last decade alone, who, we argue, are part product of historic developments in housing markets and welfare states. Generations of British have not only been orientated towards their homes as commodity assets, they have also begun to mobilize around multi-property accumulation in a context of shifting welfare and pension expectations.
Seidl, Roman; Plank, Leonhard & Justin Kadi (2017). „Airbnb in Wien: eine Analyse [Airbnb in Vienna: an analysis]“. Interactive research report: http://wherebnb.in/wien/. (in German)
Die kurzfristige Vermietung von Wohnraum als Ferienunterkunft boomt. Eine der weltweit größten Vermietungsplattformen ist Airbnb. Seit der Gründung im Jahr 2008 ist die Zahl der über den Online-Dienst vermittelten Angebote in vielen Städten rasant expandiert. Heute verwaltet Airbnb nach eigenen Angaben bereits rund 3 Millionen Unterkünfte in 65.000 Städten weltweit und erreicht mehr als 200 Millionen Gäste. Auch in Wien ist die Plattform zuletzt rapide gewachsen. Gemessen an der Zahl der gelisteten Angebote um nicht weniger als 561% allein in den letzten drei Jahren. Waren es im Oktober 2014 noch 1.300 gelistete Unterkünfte, gab es ein Jahr später bereits 5.300 2. Im August 2017 betrug die Anzahl der Unterkünfte bereits rund 8.600. Mit dem raschen Wachstum wird auch vermehrt über Pro & Contra und die Folgen der Vermietung via Airbnb diskutiert. Insbesondere die Auswirkungen auf den lokalen Wohnungsmarkt, die Folgen für die Hotellerie und die Möglichkeiten und Schwierigkeiten, Airbnb gesetzlich zu regulieren, sind dabei zuletzt in den Fokus der Debatte gerückt. Trotz der zunehmenden Aufmerksamkeit, die Airbnb damit erfährt, fehlt eine belastbare Datenbasis und damit einhergehend, eine systematische Analyse der Vermietungsaktivitäten in Wien bisher noch weitgehend. Diese Website bietet eine datengestützte Aufbereitung der Lage in Wien und will damit zur wissenschaftlichen und öffentlichen Debatte rund um die Vermietungsplattform beitragen. Die dargestellten Analysen sowie die Website sind das Ergebnis des Forschungsprojekts „Sharing-Ökonomie des Wohnens – Airbnb in Wien, räumliche und ökonomische Entwicklungslinien“, das durch die Hochschuljubiläumsstiftung der Stadt Wien gefördert wurde. Projektbearbeiter waren Roman Seidl, Leonhard Plank und Justin Kadi. Eine interaktive Website mit den Ergebnissen der Studie findet sich hier: http://wherebnb.in/wien/ (in German)
Kadi, Justin (2017) “Wie das Mietrecht die Mieten treibt und was die Politik unternimmt. Ein Kommentar zur Lage am Wiener Wohnungsmarkt“ In: derivé Zeitung für Stadtforschung 68. (In German)
Die Mieten in Wien steigen seit einigen Jahren rasant. Für Menschen mit niedrigen Einkommen – und zunehmend auch für DurchschnittsverdienerInnen – wird es immer schwieriger, leistbaren Wohnraum in der Stadt zu finden. Steigende Wohnkostenbelastung, Verdrängung in periphere Lagen bis hin zu Obdachlosigkeit sind die Folgen. Die Deregulierung des Mietrechts im Jahr 1994 wirkt sich jetzt – in den Zeiten des Betongolds – auf die Höhe der Mieten besonders stark aus, ebenso wie die fehlenden Sanktionen bei mietrechtlichen Vergehen. Eine Reform des Mietrechts wird auf Bundesebene seit Jahren ergebnislos diskutiert, gleichzeitig droht der Wohnungsgemeinnützigkeit eine Aushöhlung.
Gribat, N., Kadi, J., Lange, J., Meubrink, Y. & J. Müller (2017) Planung als politische Praxis. Zur Einleitung in den Themenschwerpunkt. [Planning as political practice. Introduction to the special issue]. suburban Zeitschrift für kritische Stadtforschung, 5 (1/2), 7-20. (in German)
In den letzten Jahren ist im deutschsprachigen Raum ein verstärktes gesellschaftliches Interesse an räumlicher Planung und deren Mitgestaltung wahrnehmbar. Insbesondere die Diskussionen über konkrete Großprojekte, wie etwa den Berliner Flughafen oder Stuttgart21, aber auch die Formierung neuer sozialer Bewegungen, wie etwa RechtaufStadtNetzwerke in verschiedenen Städten, verdeutlichen dies. Parallel dazu wird in der deutschsprachigen und anglo‑amerikanischen Planungstheorie die Konflikthaftigkeit von Planungsprozessen wieder zunehmend in den Fokus genommen. Dieses erneute Interesse am Konflikt hebt sich ab von Debatten, die über viele Jahre zu konsensualen Ansätzen der Zusammenarbeit der Politik mit anderen Akteursgruppen geführt wurden, beispielsweise im Kontext der GovernanceForschung. Mit der kommunikativen Planungstheorie hat sich seit den späten 1980er Jahren passend dazu das Ideal einer weitgehend auf Vermittlung abzielenden Planungspraxis verfestigt. Demgegenüber mehren sich nun jedoch zunehmend Denkansätze wie das neue Theorieangebot des Agonismus (vgl. u. a. Roskamm 2015a, b), der Planung (wieder) als einen politischen Aushandlungsprozess zu fassen versucht, in dem Konflikte nicht konsensual lösbar sind. Der vorliegende Themenschwerpunkt greift solche Überlegungen auf und möchte verschiedene Perspektiven auf Planung als politische (Alltags‑)Praxis diskutieren.
Kadi, Justin & Richard Ronald (2016) Undermining housing affordability for New York’s low-income households: The role of policy reform and rental sector restructuring. Critical Social Policy 36(2): 265-288.
While public programmes, rent controls and subsidy schemes have not resolved New York’s historic and long-standing housing crisis, they have been important in dampening the housing problems of low-income New Yorkers. Along with an encroaching neo-liberal hegemony, however, since the 1990s redistributive policies have come under growing pressure. This article focuses on the neo-liberal restructuring of the city’s rental market and the effects on housing affordability. First, we outline the most crucial reforms and policy changes, at various scales, that have impacted the rental market in recent decades. Second, we demonstrate, using survey data, how reforms have affected the rental market structure before assessing how supply changes have affected affordability. We find that policy reforms have led to a reduction in inexpensive rental units in the city, reshaping patterns of affordability among different income groups, with particularly negative outcomes for low-income households, specifically among Black and Minority Ethnic Groups.
Ronald, Richard; Lennartz, Chris & Justin Kadi (2016) Whatever happened to asset-based welfare? Shifting approaches to housing wealth and welfare security. Policy & Politics 45(2): 173-193.
This paper contributes to current debates by reframing recent transformations in housing, policy and property equity in terms of a transfigured asset-based welfare regime. The analysis thereby advances earlier, more descriptive evaluations of asset-based welfare and challenges suggestions that its relevance has faded since the global financial crisis. We argue, drawing on the UK as a case with broad international salience, that the home has become even more central as an asset base of individual welfare since the global financial crisis, yet under distorted conditions of access and distribution, with housing wealth polarisation undermining financial inclusion and welfare security more broadly.
Bis dato haben Prozesse der Gentrification vergleichsweise wenig Eingang in stadtpolitische Debatten in Wien gefunden. Die begrenzte Literatur zu dem Thema befasst sich vor allem mit beobachtbaren Veränderungen im öffentlichen Raum ausgewählter Viertel: Neue Geschäftsstrukturen, die Transformation von Märkten und adaptierte öffentliche Infrastrukturen von Stadtteilen wie etwa dem Brunnenmarkt, dem Karmeliterviertel oder kürzlich dem Gebiet rund um die Reindorfgasse stehen hierbei oft im Vordergrund.Ein Aspekt, der in den vorhandenen Forschungsarbeiten zu Gentrification jedoch größtenteils unbeleuchtet bleibt, sind die umfassenden Veränderungen, die am Wiener Wohnungsmarkt, insbesondere dem privaten Altbausektor, seit Ende der 1980er Jahre stattgefunden haben. Maßnahmen zur Mietrechtsliberalisierung (vgl. Rosifka/ Postler, 2010; Czasny et al., 1996), stark steigende Investitionen (vgl. Blaas et al. 2007), und umfassende Mieterhöhungen, vor allem seit Beginn der 2000er, haben diesen Sektor von einem „qualitativ niedrigen, Niedrigpreissegment“ hin zu einem „qualitativ, hochwertigen, Hochpreissegment“ gewandelt (Bauer, 2009). In der Debatte zu Gentrification in Wien haben diese Veränderungen bisher kaum Einzug gefunden (siehe allerdings Weingartner, 2010; Franz, 2011; Kadi/ Verlic, 2013). Davon ausgehend führt der folgende Artikel eine explizit wohnungsmarktbezogene Konzeptualisierung von Gentrification ein und fragt auf dieser Basis nach Anzeichen für eine steigende Relevanz von Gentrification in Wien.
Kadi, Justin (2015) “Le tre fasi di alloggi sociali a Vienna / The three phases of social housing policy in Vienna” Urbanistica, 156, 131-139 (in Italian and English).
The paper distinguishes three phases of social housing policy in Vienna: a first phase in the 1920s, which laid the foundations for the sector as part of the political experiments with municipal socialism; a second phase, from the 1950s onwards, in which social housing policy became incorporated into the national Keynesian welfare state; a third phase, since the 1980s, in which the sector is exposed to mounting neo-liberal pressure. The paper discusses for each phase the key ideas behind social housing policies, as well as the main measures and instruments towards the sector. Also, it reflects on the sector’s effectiveness to address existing urban housing problems and points out who remained excluded.
Ronald, Richard; Kadi, Justin & Chris Lennartz (2015) Homeownership-based welfare in transition. Critical Housing Analysis 2(1): 52-64.
Welfare-state restructuring featuring the use of equity held in owner-occupied housing assets to offset declining public welfare resources and diminishing pension reserves – a form of ‘homeownership-based welfare’– has become increasingly prominent in many developed economies in recent decades. This paper, focusing on the UK, examines the shifting position of homeownership, arguing that while the private home has become a key component of welfare restructuring, both owner-occupation and housing equity have become more polarised in the last decade, especially across cohorts. A particular concern is whether passive homeownership-based welfare switching strategies have become more active, or even pro-active, strategies to housing property accumulation as a means to compensate for welfare state retrenchment and anticipated pension shortfalls leading up to and since the Global Financial Crisis. We identify the significance of the rapid advance of a ‘generation landlord’ in the recent development of ‘generation rent’.
Kadi, Justin (2015) “Re-commodifying housing in formerly ‘Red Vienna’?” Housing, Theory and Society, 32(3), pp. 247-265.
Among West European cities, Vienna stands out as a case that has developed a particularly large de-commodified housing stock over the 20th century. The city’s housing model has also shown greater stability against wider re-commodification trends since the 1980s. This paper centres on two policy changes since the mid-1990s: first, the local government has ceased to provide council housing and is now entirely relying on non-profit associations for the provision of social rental housing. Second, the national government has liberalized rent regulation in the private rental market. The first part of the paper introduces these changes, discusses how they represent steps towards greater market influence and how they put pressure on de-commodified housing, particularly since the mid-2000s. The second part argues that the reforms have initiated a dualization trend among low-income households, forging a division between market insiders and outsiders. The third part reflects whether the policy changes mean that Vienna is also increasingly incorporated into broader re-commodification trends. We argue that substantial de-commodification policies have remained in place, although they have been severely weakened by re-commodification attempts. Representations of Vienna as an exceptional case without significant re-commodification, however, should be questioned.
Kadi, Justin & Sako Musterd (2014) “Housing for the poor in a neo-liberalizing just city: Still affordable, but increasingly inaccessible” Tijdschrift vor economische en sociale geografie, 106(3): 246-262.
With a comparably high degree of de-commodification in the urban housing market, Amsterdam has been long considered a prime example of a ‘European city’ and a ‘just city’. This paper looks at how the city’s housing tenure sectors have changed since the 1990s due to neo-liberalisation processes and specifies effects for housing conditions of the poor. It highlights how restructuring has been driven by policy changes at different scales, and analyses the effects of reform on issues of accessibility and affordability. We identify a gap between insiders and outsiders, with affordability for the poor inside the system not yet deteriorating, but accessibility for poor outsiders emerging as a key problem. In the conclusion we speculate on future developments of the Amsterdam housing market and relate our findings to debates about the ‘European city’ and the ‘just city’.
Kadi, Justin & Richard Ronald (2014) “Market Based Housing Reforms and the “Right to the City”: The Variegated Experiences of New York, Amsterdam, and Tokyo” International Journal of Housing Policy, 14: 268-292.
Market-based reforms have played important parts in restructuring urban housing sectors in recent decades and have increasingly marginalised or excluded lower income groups, especially in the so-called ‘global cities’ where market pressures have been strongest. While accounts of housing policy and market transformations in cities are not uncommon, existing studies demonstrate a strong North American bias. Moreover, comparative analyses have so far been rare. In this paper, neoliberal transformations in housing practices and conditions are examined in three highly differentiated and contrasting cities from three different continents: New York, Amsterdam and Tokyo. The analysis demonstrates remarkable variegation in the manifestation of neoliberalisation of housing as well as considerable path dependency in terms of housing policies, practices and market restructuring. What becomes evident is that both symbolic and de facto erosion of the ‘right to the city’ for low-income residents, while a relatively ubiquitous outcome of housing marketisation, is strongly mediated by local housing practices, structural constraints and policy legacies and regimes.
Gutheil-Knopp-Kirchwald, Gerlinde & Justin Kadi (2017) „Housing policies and spatial inequality. Recent insights from Vienna and Amsterdam.“ In: M. Getzner, D. van der Linde & B. Unger (eds.) Public or Private Goods? Redefining Res Publica, Edward Elgar Publishing.
While pension systems, unemployment benefits and health care have received ample attention in the welfare state literature, housing arguably has not. Indeed, housing has for a long time been strikingly missing from most studies of the welfare state, not least from Esping-Andersen’s (1990) seminal ‘worlds of welfare’typology. For Torgersen (1987), this lack of coverage is related to the relatively low degree of de-commodification in post-war housing systems compared to other welfare spheres in Europe.
Gutheil-Knopp-Kirchwald, Gerlinde & Justin Kadi (2014) „Gerechte Stadt – gerechte Wohnungspolitik? [Just city – just housing policies?]“ In: Der Öffentliche Sektor – The Public Sector 40 (3-4), 11-30. (in German)
In der planungstheoretischen Literatur wird man vergeblich nach einer Definition für „gerechte Wohnungspolitik“ suchen. Im jüngeren, vor allem angloamerikanischen, planungswissenschaftlichen Diskurs sind jedoch die Begriffe der „gerechten Stadt“ („just city“) sowie der „räumlichen Gerechtigkeit“ („Spatial justice“) zunehmend präsent.
Kramar, Hans & Justin Kadi (2013) “Polycentric city networks in Central Eastern Europe: existing concepts and empirical findings” Geographica Polonica 86(3), 183-198.
The concept of polycentricity has gained significance in discussions on spatial development in Europe in recent years. This paper presents new evidence on polycentric city networks in Central-Eastern Europe based on selected results of the ESPON project POLYCE (Metropolisation and Polycentric Development in Central Europe). The authors discuss existing applications of the concept in the context of EU spatial policies and present an exploratory analysis of relational polycentricity focused on international networks of firms and research co-operation between seven capital cities in Central-Eastern Europe (Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Warsaw, Berlin, Budapest and Ljubljana). Analysis of networks of firms in the advanced producer service sector reveals strong ties between Budapest, Prague, Vienna and Warsaw, with Berlin beingless connected but hosting firm subsidiaries of higher order. The investigations on research networks within EU Research Framework Programmes demonstrate that Berlin and Vienna play dominant roles in research co-operation within theregion and are also well integrated in European scientific communities. There is no clear indication that inter-urban firmand research networks are influenced by travel times or ethnic ties between the cities, but the similar structures of firmand research relations suggest that different kinds of interactions, networks and co-operation between cities often go hand in hand with each other and are connected in some way.