«Pressed by the movements»: the dispute between the right to housing and property rights in Catalan law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56247/qua.615Keywords:
social movements, right to housing, political influence, property, political partiesAbstract
The aim of this article is to assess the impact of the movements for the right to housing on Catalan legislation between 2015 and 2023, and it does so by focusing on two legislative moments, marked by the action of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages and the Tenants’ Union, which make the tension between the right to housing and property rights particularly visible. The research is based on the analysis of the legislation, the action of the movements, and also on interviews with people who have held political office in this period. In general terms, people who have held political responsibilities recognize the impact of the movements on the legislation approved in Catalonia in this period as key, whether or not they agree with the measures.
Downloads
Global Statistics ℹ️
|
16
Views
|
2
Downloads
|
|
18
Total
|
|
References
Colau, A., i Alemany, A. (2014, febrer 21). La PAH ya ha ganado. elDiario.es. https://www.eldiario.es/contrapoder/pah-ganado_132_5012746.html
D’Adda, G., i Kusiak, J. (2025). Striking back with the law: Legal struggles against corporate landlords in Barcelona and Berlin. Urban Studies, 62(16), 3205-3222. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241300417 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980241300417
El País. (2013, 17 de febrer). Los desahucios unen a los votantes. El País. Internet Archive https://elpais.com/politica/2013/02/16/actualidad/1361053281_008924.html
Emperador Badimon, M., i Ancelovici, M. (2025). When Movements Change Policies: Popular Legislative Initiatives in Favor of Housing Rights in Spain. Politics & Policy, 53(2), e70001. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.70001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.70001
França, J. (2014a, 2 de maig). La Generalitat sancionará los pisos vacíos muy por debajo de lo que permite la ley. elDiario.es. https://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/generalitat-cobrar-impuestoviviendas-vacias_1_4903452.html
França, J. (2014b, 10 de juliol). La PAH impulsa una nueva ILP por el derecho vivienda y contra la pobreza energética a nivel catalán. elDiario.es. https://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/pah-ilpvivienda-energetica-catalan_1_4767712.html
França, J. (2018). Habitar la trinxera: Històries del moviment pel dret a l’habitatge a Barcelona.
Fundació Periodisme Plural / Octaedro. https://habitarlatrinxera.cat/
França, J. (2021). La PAH: manual de uso. Aprendizajes para la acción colectiva a partir de la lucha por el derecho a la vivienda. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. https://rosalux.es/wp-content/uploads/kontext-import/documents/e/6/b2d1a7.pdf
França, J., Mir Garcia, J. (2013). Sobre los escraches y la necesidad de repertorios transformadores. El Viejo Topo, (306-307), 82-86. http://dev.elviejotopo.com/web/archivo_revista.php?arch=1946.pdf
Gil, J., Palomera, J. (2024). Can Tenants’ Unions Challenge Neoliberal Housing Governance? The Emergence of a New Movement in Spain and Its Impact on Post-neoliberal Housing Policy. Housing, Theory and Society, 41(5), 628-656. https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2024.2353818 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2024.2353818
Guber, R. (2004). El salvaje metropolitano: Reconstrucción del conocimiento social en el trabajo de campo. Paidós. (Obra original publicada el 1991).
Ill-Raga, M. (2024). Questioning the ‘freedom of contract’: Contract disobedience and the tenant struggle in Barcelona. Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, 56(1), 83-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/27706869.2024.2310363 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/27706869.2024.2310363
Krinsky, J. (2025). Toward a Conjunctural Analysis of New York City’s Housing Movement. Politics & Policy, 53(1), e70006. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.70006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.70006
Martinez, M. A. (2019). Bitter wins or a long-distance race? Social and political outcomes of the Spanish housing movement. Housing Studies, 34(10), 1588-1611. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2018.1447094 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2018.1447094
Mir Garcia, J. (2021). Ola 15M: 10 años de movilización y cambio. Bellaterra.
Mir Garcia, J. (2024). Convertir l’habitatge en un dret. L’emergència habitacional. L’ Avenç, (512),10. https://www.lavenc.cat/noticia/318/convertir-habitatge-dret-emergencia-habitacional
Mir Garcia, J., França, J., Macías, C., Veciana Botet, P. (2013). Fundamentos de la Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca: Activismo, asesoramiento colectivo y desobediencia civil no violenta. Educación social: Revista de intervención socioeducativa, (55), 51-60. https://doi.org/10.34810/EducacioSocialn55id271042
RTVE. (2025, 23 d’octubre). España pide en la UE «medidas legales para reducir la compra de vivienda no residencial» ante un mercado «que no funciona». RTVE.es. https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20251023/lideres-union-europea-problema-acceso-vivienda/16783149.shtml
Sabaté, I. (2016). The Spanish Mortgage Crisis and the Re-emergence of Moral Economies in Uncertain Times. History and Anthropology, 27(1), 107-120. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2015.1111882 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2015.1111882
Tarrow, S. (1997). El poder en movimiento: Los movimientos sociales, la acción colectiva y la política. Alianza. (Obra original publicada el 1994).
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Quaderns de l'Institut Català d'Antropologia
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Use and Distribution License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Funding data
-
Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Grant numbers TEVIPROP (PID2022-138661NB-I00)
