Subaltern Housing Policies

Background

• In the wealthy and orderly city of Geneva, Switzerland, wooden barracks were hastily built between the 1950s and 1980s to house seasonal workers from southern Europe

• They were meant to be temporary, as seasonal workers were expected to return

• Today, many are still standing and still inhabited

• While the seasonal status disappeared in the early 2000s, the demand for low-skilled, flexible labour did not

• Who replaced the seasonal workers?

The method 

• Following the historical trajectories of specific buildings 

• Makes it possible to trace a link between the production of substandard housing and the production of categories of people who are kept on the margins of full citizenship

Subaltern Housing Policies

• The notion of ‘Subaltern Housing Policies’ accounts for the public action that leads to the production and subsequent use of forms of housing characterised by standards of comfort and security far below those of the rental and social housing stock, but considered ‘good enough’ for their occupants

• ‘Subaltern’ relates not only to housing conditions, but also to the policies themselves, and last but not least to the people who are subjected to them

• The latter fall into different categories: 'homeless', 'irregular migrants', 'asylum seekers', etc.