The city of Lisbon is in the midst of a perfect storm for housing, generated by the intersection of the long wave of economic crisis and austerity with recent touristification, gentrification and massive real estate investment. At the same time, urban (often forced) mobility is reshaping neighborhood identities, with effects on the housing activism’s identity, frames and claims. In this context, between 2011 and 2013, Portugal experienced the largest protest cycle since the 1974 revolution. In connection with anti-austerity movements, in Lisbon housing activism has strengthened, strongly underpinned by anti-gentrification claims.
Social movement studies have rarely dealt with gentrification and movements against it. On the other hand, these have been at the center of various researches in the field of radical geography, urban sociology and planning. By focusing on the city of Lisbon, this paper aims to intertwine these analytical fields. Moving from the micro and meso dimensions of housing and anti-gentrification mobilization (activists and groups), the paper will enlarge its scope to macro aspects such as national housing policies and residents’ mobility.
The analysis will cross information on new housing activism (ethnography, protest events and frames analysis), policy (critical policy analysis) and dynamics (mapping and demographic analysis) in housing in Lisbon, and it will be enriched by an action research partnership with the housing association Habita.
