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H2020Individual fellowship2020–2023

SUSTEUS · Assessing the socio-economic impact of environmentally sustainable redevelopment plans on communities housed in social housing estates in EU and US cities

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2020-04-01 → 2023-03-31
EU contribution
€271,733
Participants
2
Scheme
MSCA-IF

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Results in brief

Assessing the socio-economic impact of environmentally sustainable redevelopment plans on communities housed in social housing estates in EU and US cities

In public and policy discourse, "green" and energy-efficient planning and building practices are generally presented as a win-win response to many urban evils, including energy scarcity, air pollution and water quality, but also social ills such as spatial segregation and social exclusion. However, discourses around urban climate initiatives have not been uncontested in the scholarly debate. Research in the fields of political ecology and human and environmental geography has informed a heated interdisciplinary debate around the social implications of "green" urban agendas, highlighting their potential uneven socio-spatial impacts, and their likelihood to create new speculative geographies of growth, as well as new urban spaces of devaluation and decline. An investigation of the social implications of ‘green’ regeneration plans is particularly cogent when these are implemented in disadvantaged neighbourhoods that are characterized by a history of concentrated poverty and social marginalization. While the retrofit of non-energy efficient housing complexes, and particularly of old social housing estates dating back to the 1940s-1970s, is seen as a core area of intervention in both EU and US climate agendas, extant research in residential retrofits shows that these programs are often associated with negative social externalities, including increased rental costs being charged to tenants, which can result in their displacement or eviction ("renovictions"). Yet, limited research has been conducted to investigate patterns of social and demographic changes that may occur as a result of green value-added renovations in areas of concentrated disadvantage, such as large social housing estates. SUSTEUS looks at three major environmentally sustainable plans that have been adopted in the regeneration of large social housing complexes in Europe, the UK and the US. The research is based on an extensive review of the development programs in use (with a particular focus on energy-efficiency and greening strategies, as well as regulatory measures to promote population retention and social cohesion), and a rich ethnographic study based on in-depth interviews with residents and stakeholders, with the aim to assesses the social, economic and cultural changes these plans are bringing in their communities.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Over the last decade, a new field of studies on ‘green gentrification’ has suggested a causal correlation between the implementation of environmentally sustainable planning initiatives and the displacement of low-income residents due to changes in property values resulting from environmental improvements. Such patterns are particularly alarming when 'green' development initiatives are implemented in disadvantaged neighborhoods with a history of concentrated poverty and social marginalization. In this comparative interdisciplinary study I will add to this growing body of literature by investigating the impact of 'green' redevelopment plans on the communities housed in three social housing estates in Europe and the US. I will conduct research in three cities –Berlin, London and Los Angeles – where three social housing estates, home to poor and marginalized communities, have been recently redeveloped as eco-friendly urban districts. My aim is to assess the extent to which these plans have encouraged processes of residential displacement of vulnerable households, including minorities and women, and if and what actions have been put in place to prevent them. My research objectives (RO) are: to examine the different politico-institutional landscapes in which the 'green' plans identified have been developed and operate in (RO1); to document the three redevelopment projects and the planning toolkits in use in each specific context (RO2); to quantify the socio-demographic impact of redevelopment, documenting residential turnover (RO3); to qualify the social impacts on the pre-existing public housing tenants through in-depth qualitative research (RO4). By shedding light on the dynamics of gentrification and displacement that may arise in social housing estates undergoing 'green' development, this research will provide an evidence base for policy making and encourage the design and implementation of equitable public policies that might counter unintended negative outcomes.

Original text from CORDIS.

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Data: CORDIS, © European Union