Category: organizing

Documentation: Learning and Struggling in Pandemic times

Published date August 26, 2021 Categories care / city / climate & ecology / feminism / movement / organizing / protest

The pandemic, like other unfolding and coming ecological crises, profoundly reshapes the terrain upon which social movements operate and emerge. We held a workshop in order to discuss different terrains of struggle over housing, reproductive rights, and ecology. Here we are allocating recordings of the talks and of the discussion on May 21st as well as further reflections on the workshop on May 22nd.

Workshops and movement learning spaces in Pandemic Times

Published date August 25, 2021 Categories city / movement / organizing / protest

Commentary on the workshop “Learning and Struggling in Pandemic Times”.

Time and space seemed to have become somewhat warped since the beginning of the pandemic. Personally, I often get struck by a feeling of paralysis when I think about our collective struggles and organizing efforts during the pandemic, almost like being frozen in time and waiting for things to change from the outside. This newly learned and shared pandemic vulnerability meant for most of us to reduce our real life encounters and therefore find new ways to connect, meet and organize…

Care and unconditional solidarity in the struggle for the right to housing.

Published date July 28, 2021 Categories care / city / feminism / housing / organizing

Commentary on the Workshop “Learning and Struggling in Pandemic Times. Available in German and French.

Die Erfahrungen von Organizing im Wohnumfeld und die Erfahrung der Pandemie (die uns auf unser Wohnumfeld zurückgeworfen hat) können Grundlage dafür sein, ein Bewusstsein für informell geleistete Care-Arbeit zu schaffen und neue solidarische Formen von Care-Arbeit zu leben und zu erkämpfen…

Organizing with tenants and fighting rightist resentments

Published date June 27, 2021 Categories city / housing / organizing / public space

Through two neighborhood case studies in the rapidly upgrading East German city of Leipzig we discuss political implications of urban restructuring. Scrutinizing tenants’ rightist and racist reactions to the housing question, we argue that residential alienation affects people’s sense of place in a divisive manner, which in turn impacts both their interpretations of urban change and their respective practices. Based on our analyses of scapegoating and territorial stigma, we critically discuss the potential of activist intervention, drawing from two qualitative and ethnographic research projects, as well as activist experience in neighbourhood organizing.

Gleanings: Harte Prüfung

Published date March 3, 2021 Categories housing / organizing

„So macht Krise Spaß“, brachte ein kritischer Kommentar (Metzger 2020) auf den Punkt, dass die Gewinnsträhne der Wohnungskonzerne auch während der Pandemie anhält. Nicht nur sind die Immobilienpreise und Mieten in Deutschland im Coronajahr weiter gestiegen. Auch eine Beteiligung an den Kosten der Krise scheint den Unternehmen nicht zu drohen.