The strategic use of legal reforms to respond to the housing crisis. A balance on results, limits and potential
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56247/qua.617Keywords:
Legal strategies, housing crisis, social movements, right to housingAbstract
Since 2009, when the consequences of the mortgage crisis began to affect thousands of people throughout Spain, urban social movements have organised themselves to respond to the precarization of the right to housing. This article analyses how various urban movements, in addition to sharing everyday practices of resistance (stopping evictions, promoting direct negotiations with landlords, occupations, etc.), also developed campaigns that succeeded in modifying the legal framework, both in Catalonia (Laws 24/2015, 17/2019, 11/2020, 1/2022) and at the state level (Housing Law, eviction moratoriums). By analysing the legal strategies used to promote new legislation that guarantee the right to housing and counteract the most dramatic effects of the crisis, this paper aims to contribute to academic and activist debates on the effectiveness, potential and limits of legal strategies to respond to the housing crisis.
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