Cities across the globe have been undergoing a massive transformation in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. While some cities have witnessed deepening poverty, foreclosures, and homelessness, others have experienced bubbling property markets, rampant gentrification, and rental housing crises. Some cities have witnessed both processes simultaneously, with effects on social, income, and wealth inequalities that vary along axes of difference such as race, gender, class, age, and citizenship. Undergirding such changes has been a reorganization of the global financial system, with new kinds of lenders and insidious innovations in new credit products. Simultaneously many countries have implemented national consumer protection strategies, financial literacy initiatives, and financially inclusive policy, which potentially serve their stated purposes of strengthening the financial resilience of individuals and households, but can also be conceptualized as deepening processes of state-led neoliberalism and finance-led transformation. Comparison between cities, countries and their associated policy initiatives will promote dialogue on the scalar components and effects of contemporary finance-led capitalism.
This fourth panel in the series explores the relationship between finance-led capitalism, state policies, austerity urbanism, and the gentrification of rental housing, including subsidized or state-run rental housing communities. As in the other related sessions, this panel empirically examines these issues among case-study cities, including the San Francisco bay area (USA), Dublin (Ireland), Haifa and Jerusalem (Isreal), and Canada (Toronto, and remote northern cities).
Moderator: Susanne Soederberg, Queen's University
Social Finance and the City: “Ethical” Investing and the Governance of Housing in Poor Urban Spaces Emily Rosenman, University of Toronto
Debtfare and Displacement in Dublin: Rental Housing Crisis in Austerity Urbanism Susanne Soederberg, Queen's University
Financialized Communities: Assessing the Effect of Market-Led Regeneration on Israeli Neighborhoods Yinnon Geva, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Gillad Rosen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Canada’s Rental Housing Goldmine: The Financialization of Apartments from the Trailer Park to the Tar Sands Martine August, University of Waterloo
