Abstract
The provision of housing plays a decisive role in segregation processes. In a European context increasingly influenced by variegated neo-liberal housing policies, Vienna’s approach is characterised by generous access to social housing. This inclusive strategy aims at actively preventing segregation and the isolation of certain groups. Over the last 30 years, however, reconfigured multi-level arrangements and wider contextual changes have transformed Vienna’s housing governance. This article explores how. In particular, it aims at disentangling the relationship between housing policy reforms at multiple policy levels and the changes of the mechanisms shaping the access to tenure segments and residential segregation in Vienna. Through the use of process tracing, we identify critical junctures of housing governance and relate them to housing segmentation and segregation measures over a period of approximately 30 years. Our findings show that reforms on multiple levels produce an increasingly deregulated private rental market and an increasingly fragmented access to a diversified provision of social housing. From a spatial point of view, persistent patterns of segregation blend with new ones, leading to decreasing segregation characterised by a more even spatial distribution of low and high-status groups. At the same time, both groups show very low, but slightly increased levels of isolation. Tenant profiles in social housing are, however, generally still very mixed. Balancing the trade-off between a social mix and social targeting without excluding residents in need will remain the main challenge for Vienna’s social housing model.
Highlights
In the context of globalisation, neoliberalisation and welfare state retrenchments, increasing social inequalities and segregation levels are well documented in urban areas worldwide but to varying degrees (Musterd, 2020, p. 415)
This article has set out to analyse the relation between trends and patterns of segregation in Vienna and the reconfiguration of inclusionary and exclusionary mechanisms emerging from recent multi-level housing policy reforms since the 1990s
In analysing the recent genealogy of Vienna’s housing regime, we aimed at understanding to which degree Vienna is challenged to maintain its inclusive and socially mixed housing approach
Summary
In the context of globalisation, neoliberalisation and welfare state retrenchments, increasing social inequalities and segregation levels are well documented in urban areas worldwide but to varying degrees (Musterd, 2020, p. 415). As uneven patterns of over- and underrepresentation do not necessarily translate into stronger isolation of groups (Johnston et al, 2014), we consider ‘exposure.’ This dimension refers to the likelihood that members of one group will encounter residents of a different background in their respective neighbourhoods (Reardon & O’Sullivan, 2004) To address these issues, the article proceeds as follows: (2) we lay out our analytical framework which emphasises the relationship between housing-welfare regimes, tenure segments and residential segregation in multi-level arrangements. This check largely confirmed that, with both low and high numbers of nearest neighbours, persistent spatial patterns and levels of clustering exist
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