Struggling for recognition and affordable housing in Amsterdam and Hamburg: resignation, resistance, relocation

254 Pages·2016·11.96 MB·English

by  Tino Buchholz

Struggling for recognition
and affordable housing in Amsterdam and Hamburg:
resignation, resistance, relocation
Tino Buchholz
dedicated to M
ISBN: 978-90-367-8973-8
Copyright © 2016, Tino Buchholz. All rights reserved.
Cover, layout, printing by Off Page Amsterdam
Cover photo: Tino Buchholz (Hamburg 2011)
Proofreading: Ray Carroll
Struggling for recognition
and affordable housing in Amsterdam and Hamburg:
resignation, resistance, relocation
PhD thesis
to obtain the degree of PhD at the
University of Groningen
on the authority of the
Rector Magnificus Prof. E. Sterken
and in accordance with
the decision by the College of Deans
This thesis will be defended in public on
Thursday, 30 June 2016 at 14.30 hours
by
Tino Buchholz
born on 09 July 1978
in Schwerin, Germany
Supervisors
Prof. G. de Roo
Prof. P.H. Pellenbarg
Co-Supervisor
Dr. J. Beaumont
Assessment committee
Prof. V. Heins
Prof. H.H.A. van den Brink
Prof. C.H. Mulder
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introducing Axel Honneth to critical urban theory 19
1. 1. Redistribution or Recognition? 20
1. 2. Localizing struggles for recognition 22
1. 3. The just city discourse and property-led urbanization 23
1. 4. Structure of this work 26
Chapter 2 Methodology 31
2. 1. On normativity and the role of critical theory 34
2. 2. Constant comparison
and the second generation of grounded theory 37
2. 3. Interviews, observation and visualisation 42
Chapter 3 Localising Honneth for a critical urban theory of justice 49
3. 1. Social conflicts and struggles for recognition 50
3. 2. Recognition and power relations: ideological recognition 52
3. 3. Disrespect, resistance and social movements 55
3. 4. Market justice, the achievement principle and creative
class struggle 57
3. 5. Recognition of rights: property rights and Lefebvre’s Right to the City 61
3. 6. The Just City, the Commons and democratic procedures 65
3. 7. Localising struggles for recognition: Lefebvre’s (social) production
of (social) space 71
3. 8. Making sense of Honneth and Lefebvre: (local) struggles
for (local) recognition 76
3. 9. Local qualities of struggle:
resignation, resistance and im/possibilities of relocation 79
Chapter 4 Housing careers and housing rights in Europe 85
4. 1. Promotion of private home-ownership 86
4. 2. Residualisation of social rented housing 90
4. 3. Circumventing tenants’ rights: Anti-Squat property guardianship 93
4. 4. State of the art of Squatting in Europe 96
Chapter 5 Resignation in Amsterdam? 103
5. 1. Global city ambitions and creative city competition 104
5. 2. The silent revolution in social housing 111
5. 3. Resignation of SASH movement 114
5. 4. Particular resistance and continuous struggle 116
5. 5. Struggling with affordability and accessibility of housing: Anti-Squat 120
Chapter 6 Resistance in Hamburg? 127
6. 1. Global city ambitions: from port city to Hafencity 128
6. 2. IBA’s promise of improvement without displacement 134
6. 3. Urban growth and growing resistance 137
6. 4. Hamburg’s Right to the City alliance 140
6. 5. Coalition for Housing 144
Chapter 7 Local mis/recognition of property-led urbanisation
in Amsterdam and Hamburg 149
Part one: Qualities of recognition, resignation, resistance, relocation 154
7. 1. Scales of recognition 155
7. 2. Organising recognition and organised resignation 158
7. 3. Organising particular vs. comprehensive resistance over time 164
7. 4. Relocation, residential mobility and displacement in cities 168
7. 5. International migration movements and relocation beyond cities 174
Part two: Recognising the dualistic structure of property rights 180
7. 6. Mis/recognition of vacant property and conditions of use 183
7. 7. Legal and social mis/recognition of Dutch Anti-Squat
vacancy management 185
7. 8. German Experiences with the Dutch model
and the contrasting Leipzig model 195
7. 9. Co-operative solutions of collective ownership:
The German tenement syndicate in Hamburg and Amsterdam’s Soweto 198
Chapter 8 Concluding remarks on the cynicism of our time and the good life
in Western cities 209
8. 1. What we struggle with 212
8. 2. What we want 217
8. 3. How we get there 219
References 226
Appendix List of interviews (100) 245
Samenvatting 249

List of tables and figures
Table 1: Structure of recognition relations 51
Table 2: Democratic traditions 69
Figure 3: (Local) Struggles for (local) Recognition 79
Figure 4: Accumulated real house price increases 1985-2006 (in %) 87
Figure 5: Average real property prices 1985-2007 88
Figure 6: Development of Dutch owner-occupiers (in %) 1985–2009 89
Figure 7: Increase of housing costs from household consumption in 27 EU states 90
Table 8: Housing tenure and size of social sector in Europe 92
Figure 9: Amsterdam structural vision 2040 105
Table 10: Amsterdam housing vision 2020 106
Figure 11: Masterplan Amsterdam North 108
Figure 12: Districts of special attention by postcode 110
Table 13: Amsterdam ownership development in relation to NL 112
Figure 14: Amsterdam housing stock in relation to income (2011) 113
Figure 15: Hamburg harbour regeneration: HafenCity 129
Figure 16: Hamburg as-built plan 2013+ for the future of the Elbe islands 133
Table 17: Hamburg Wilhelmsburg in relation to the overall Hamburg (2011) 134
Figure 18: Price development of privately owned, new built apartments 2004–2013 137
Figure 19: Average net rent increase in EUR/sqm between 2006–2012 138
Table 20: Hamburg comparison of owner-occupancy rates in Germany in 2008 139
Table 21: Hamburg movements for the Right to the City 142
Table 22: Historical developments and legal recognition of Anti-Squat in a time-line 188
Table 23: Ideal relations between the public sphere and the state 215