Squatting Historic Urban Landscapes in Bucharest: Analyzing Discourse and Assessing Neighborhood Decay

Abstract:

Squatting is often interpreted as a housing practice that promotes physical decay and jeopardizes public order and safety. Existing literature about squatting in Europe is primarily focused on political and ideologically motivated squatting rather than economic and deprivation-based squatting. Understudied research areas related to European squatting practices include public discourse about informal housing and lived experiences of these precarious arrangements, as well as the impact of squatting on the physical deterioration of urban historic landscapes and neighborhood social cohesion. This study contributes to emerging scholarship by exploring multiple dimensions of housing insecurity, impact of squatting on historic urban landscapes, and squatters’ social relations. Findings show that squatting is a complex social process transformed by popular opinion and public policy discourse into an “urban problem” with negative impacts on historic landscapes and neighborhood cohesion. For some of Bucharest’s socioeconomically disadvantaged and housing insecure families, the dominant discourse about squatting excludes their voices and lived experiences from urban governance. This study shares some of their experiences and perspectives about the practice of informal housing in Bucharest’s historic center.

Keywords: Urban

Authors: