With researchers from geography, planning, sociology, and architecture, the group studies housing commodification, housing policies, inequality, exclusion, and power dynamics using diverse methodologies like ethnographic observation and GIS analysis. Aiming to foster comparative discussions, they engage in public debates, policy recommendations, and scholarly exchanges through events and publications, making housing issues more visible and accessible to a broader audience.
At the Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2024, held from 8-9 November in Basel, the group organized a symposium that included two paper presentation sessions as well as a round-table discussion centered on the group's core topics. Dr. Johannes Herburger presented findings from his ongoing research on post-industrial neighborhoods in the trinational Alpenrheintal, exploring how housing commodification results from specific urbanization processes in the region.
Johannes Herburger also moderated a round-table discussion on housing dynamics with experts from academia and politics: Ivo Balmer (Grosser Rat der Stadt Basel), Hanna Hilbrandt (Universität Zürich), Luisa Gehriger (Universität Zürich), and Miriam Meuth (Hochschule Luzern). Key topics in the round table included land ownership, housing ideologies, and data production and ownership. Who owns land, and who owns the data that influences housing policies? These are some of the crucial questions for the future. For effective and progressive housing policies, a transdisciplinary effort involving politics, academia, social organizations, and the housing production sector is essential. Affordable and adequate housing is a basic human need!