IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v60y2023i7p1231-1248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Maintaining autonomy: Urban degrowth and the commoning of housing

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Savini

Abstract

The theory – and practice – of establishing autonomy from the hegemony of growth is central to the imaginary of degrowth. Yet to envisage pathways towards a degrowth society, scholars need to explain how autonomy coalesces into autonomous institutions. This article addresses this institutional challenge of how to secure autonomy in the provision of collective, affordable and decommodified housing in cities. Building on the tradition of autonomist and (post-)workerist thought, it conceptualises this challenge as one of maintenance. It argues that autonomy occurs through its perpetual reproduction, which is made possible by nesting and federating practices among autonomous communities. Nesting and federating practices allow these communities to avoid becoming enclaves and co-optation by market logics. The article illustrates these arguments through reference to the struggles of de Nieuwe Meent, a recent housing commoning project in Amsterdam.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Savini, 2023. "Maintaining autonomy: Urban degrowth and the commoning of housing," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1231-1248, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:7:p:1231-1248
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980221121517
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980221121517
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980221121517?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maria Kaika & Angelos Varvarousis & Federico Demaria & Hug March, 2023. "Urbanizing degrowth: Five steps towards a Radical Spatial Degrowth Agenda for planning in the face of climate emergency," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1191-1211, May.
    2. Stuart Hodkinson, 2012. "The new urban enclosures," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(5), pages 500-518, October.
    3. Anita Blessing, 2012. "Magical or Monstrous? Hybridity in Social Housing Governance," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 189-207.
    4. Justus Uitermark, 2004. "The co‐optation of squatters in Amsterdam and the emergence of a movement meritocracy: a critical reply to Pruijt," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 687-698, September.
    5. Varvarousis, Angelos, 2020. "The rhizomatic expansion of commoning through social movements," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    6. D’Alisa, Giacomo & Kallis, Giorgos, 2020. "Degrowth and the State," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    7. Jaime Lluch, 2012. "Autonomism and Federalism," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 42(1), pages 134-161, January.
    8. Manuel B. Aalbers & Jannes Van Loon & Rodrigo Fernandez, 2017. "The Financialization of A Social Housing Provider," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 572-587, July.
    9. Bossuyt, Daniël & Salet, Willem & Majoor, Stan, 2018. "Commissioning as the cornerstone of self-build. Assessing the constraints and opportunities of self-build housing in the Netherlands," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 524-533.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manville, Graham & Greatbanks, Richard, 2020. "Performance management in hybrid organisations: A study in social housing," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 533-545.
    2. Desiree Fields, 2017. "Unwilling Subjects of Financialization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 588-603, July.
    3. Jesús M. González-Pérez, 2022. "Evictions, Foreclosures, and Global Housing Speculation in Palma, Spain," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-26, February.
    4. Esin Özdemir & Ayda Eraydin, 2017. "Fragmentation in Urban Movements: The Role of Urban Planning Processes," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 727-748, September.
    5. Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2018. "From Kampungs to Condos? Contested accumulations through displacement in Jakarta," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(2), pages 437-456, March.
    6. Ross Beveridge & Philippe Koch, 2021. "Contesting austerity, de-centring the state: Anti-politics and the political horizon of the urban," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(3), pages 451-468, May.
    7. Oberholzer, Basil, 2023. "Post-growth transition, working time reduction, and the question of profits," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    8. Reshma Shrestha & Jaap Zevenbergen & Fahria Masum & Mahesh Banskota, 2018. "“Action Space” Based Urban Land Governance Pattern: Implication in Managing Informal Settlements from the Perspective of Low-Income Housing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-19, June.
    9. Ju Tjung Liong & Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard & Suryono Herlambang & Wahyu Astuti, 2020. "Space Grabs: Colonizing the Vertical City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 1072-1082, November.
    10. Jennifer Robinson & Katia Attuyer, 2021. "Extracting Value, London Style: Revisiting the Role of the State in Urban Development," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 303-331, March.
    11. Laura Deruytter & David Bassens, 2021. "The Extended Local State under Financialized Capitalism: Institutional Bricolage and the Use of Intermunicipal Companies to Manage Financial Pressure," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 232-248, March.
    12. Marisol Garcia, 2006. "Citizenship Practices and Urban Governance in European Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(4), pages 745-765, April.
    13. Jan Lilliendahl Larsen & Jens Brandt, 2018. "Critique, Creativity and the Co-Optation of the Urban: A Case of Blind Fields and Vague Spaces in Lefebvre, Copenhagen and Current Perceptions of the Urban," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(3), pages 52-69.
    14. Nicola Morrison, 2017. "Selling the family silver? Institutional entrepreneurship and asset disposal in the English housing association sector," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(12), pages 2856-2873, September.
    15. Saiz, Albert, 2023. "The Global Housing Affordability Crisis: Policy Options and Strategies," IZA Policy Papers 203, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Lakshminarayan Satpati & Anwesha Haldar, 2021. "Neoliberal urban sustainability in Old Kolkata, India: Case studies of contested developments," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(6), pages 1825-1841, December.
    17. Clark Gordon L, 2021. "The Significance of Financial Competence and Risk Tolerance in Home-Related Expenditure by Jurisdiction and Regime," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 65(1), pages 12-27, March.
    18. Gräbner-Radkowitsch, Claudius & Strunk, Birte, 2023. "Degrowth and the Global South: The twin problem of global dependencies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    19. Zsuzsa Csergő & Philippe Roseberry & Stefan Wolff, 2017. "Institutional Outcomes of Territorial Contestation: Lessons from Post-Communist Europe, 1989–2012," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 491-521.
    20. Manuel B. Aalbers, 2017. "The Variegated Financialization of Housing," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 542-554, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:7:p:1231-1248. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.