Posted on

RHJ Issue 2.1 out now: The renewed ‘crisis’: Housing struggle before and after the pandemic

After a year of work, Issue 2.1 of the Radical Housing Journal is out now. Titled: “The renewed ‘crisis’: Housing struggle before and after the pandemic”, peer-reviewed & open-source, accessible here: https://radicalhousingjournal.org/issue/2-1/

Highlights include:

– The first paper by the Editorial Collective on “Covid-19 and housing struggles: The (re)makings of austerity, disaster capitalism, and the no return to normal”

– Five long-reads, peer-reviewed, papers, covering struggles from a number of geographies and topics including #gentrification #RefugeeHousing #asylumseekers #HosuingJustice. Our peer review system is very strict, including academic & activists reviewers in the process

– Two great conversations:
(i) one around housing struggles in Romania and CEE, with our comrades Frontul Comun pentru Dreptul la Locuire and
Căși sociale ACUM / Social housing NOW

(ii) the other with the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, the amazing Raquel Rolnik. “Building territories to protect life and not profit. The RHJ in conversation with Raquel Rolnik” – a must-read

– Eight updates from several geographies, including one written by our friends at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy in LA, one on a global on-line conversation covering Covid-19/housing, & reviews, one of the Push film

Issue 2.1 is edited by myself, Ana Vilenica, Erin MC EL, Alejandra Reyes, Claire Bowan, and Elana Eden.

For all of us, doing this issue meant to prioritize collective work instead of individual papers, or manuscript writing.

We hope you’ll enjoy it.

Peace!

[For updates on the RHJ, follow us @Radical_Housing or like our page Radical Housing Journal on Facebook]

Posted on

Joining the Unequal cities network @UCLA

I am thrilled to join #UnequalCities Network at UCLA as a core partner. This is one of the most exciting housing justice initiative bridging research & activism out there at the moment http://unequalcities.org. A big thank you to Ananya Roy for the invitation!

I am also happy to share this with a couple of Radical Housing Journal’s core Editors (Erin MC EL and Melissa Garcia Lamarca) www.radicalhousingjournal.org (and of course, there is also the amazing Desiree Fields in there too!)

Posted on

Horizontal solidarities: Screening and debate at the Casalboccone squat (Rome)

Yesterday in Rome at the Casal Boccone Occupato resiste e insiste squat we had a powerful exchange Romania-Italy on racism, evictions and housing justice.

We screened A Inceput Ploaia and then had a debate with the comrades of Blocchi Precari Metropolitani, the Comitato Case Popolari Tufello, occupanti di Colle Salario and Metropoliz Lab.

The Frontul Comun pentru Dreptul la Locuire was represented by myself and Nicoleta (from the Vulturilor 50 community), who chatted with us via messenger, answering questions from the comrades of Rome and invited all to continue to resist and fight for the right to housing and the city. Mady Gavrilescu was there and we expressed our solidarity for her fight #DajeMada

It was a powerful exchange, which I hope it is going to be just the start of a series of collaborations and common fights. These spaces of encounter are possible only via mixing academic and activist work in ways that are not dictated by the scholars involved, but are aligned with the grassroot politics at play in the context of action.

Thanks Mady Gavrilescu for the hospitality and Margherita Grazioli for organizing!