Radical Housing Encounters: translocal conversations on knowledge and praxis
// An Antipode Foundation International Workshop by the Radical Housing Journal Collective
** WORKSHOPS POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19**
Given the rapid escalation of COVID-19 pandemic, the Radical Housing Journal’s international Radical Housing Encounters workshops, funded by the Antipode Foundation, will not take place on 20-22 May 2020 as planned.
This is not a cancellation, but a postponement to a future date to be determined.
In the meantime, we are working towards a suitable online format to continue our transnational conversations on radical housing methods and issues. We believe such discussions are all the more relevant at a time when well-being (and survival) is ever more predicated upon access to secure housing everywhere.
[Archive] Call for workshop contributions
“Radical Housing Encounters: translocal conversations on knowledge and praxis” is a two-day workshop taking place simultaneously across three cities to address the need for a more global understanding of organising for decent dwelling, as well as for establishing intersectional and decolonial approaches to knowledge-production and its dissemination. Funded by the 2019 Antipode Foundation International Workshop Award, the event will bring together activists, academics and housing practitioners in a spirit of cooperation and co-enquiry, to explore praxis-led definitions of ‘radical housing’ and the intersections of organising and open knowledge-production around housing injustice and strategies of resistance.
Learning from experiences in the Global North and South, the workshop will expand understanding of contemporary radical housing analysis and activism in multiple geographies, challenging status-quo conceptualisations of housing struggles. The workshops aim to create a space to reflect on methodologies and processes of knowledge-production; build new relationships and partnerships across disciplinary boundaries, activist practices and country settings; and to deepen or challenge translocal understandings of housing justice, radical urban praxis and grassroots activism.
Travel bursaries
Up to 18 travel bursaries are available to help cover the cost of travel for early-career housing scholars/ scholar-activists/ unwaged /and non-institutional researchers (and a small number also for those in this category travelling from abroad) and two nights of accommodation. Please state your need to be considered for a bursary via the application form. Childcare may also be made available if required. Please indicate on your application if this is needed.
Workshop structure
The workshops will be held on dates that facilitate exchange between host locations: 20-22 May in San Cristóbal de Las Casas and 21-22 May in Lancaster and Barcelona. For particular segments of each day, video-conferencing will enable interaction, exchange and feedback across the host cities. Day 1 will draw on the experiences and knowledge of participants to define ‘radical housing’ across different geographies and approaches. Day 2 will focus on issues of scholar-activism and positionality, knowledge-production and dissemination in solidarity with struggles for housing justice. The programme will include site visits and presentations by local activists/researchers. Presentations and debates will be video and/or sound recorded, with a view to be published on the Radical Housing Journal’s website.
Apply to participate
Activists, early to mid-career housing scholars, scholar-activists and practitioners are invited to contribute to the workshop. We encourage contributions about, but not exclusive to: transnational landlords and financialisation; evictions; rental mechanisms and discontents; migrant struggles for housing in hostile host environments; housing and political ecology concerns; housing struggles around informality; racial capitalism and housing oppressions/resistance; rural housing and land struggles; collective organising for alternative modes of dwelling.
Please complete and submit the application form by January 20th 2020. Successful applicants will be notified by January 30th 2020. Contributors will be encouraged to provide a written text or audio-visual object in advance of the event to facilitate discussion among participants. Also, please note that in order to fill out the form, you may be prompted to sign in to your Google account. If you do not have one and would rather not create one, please email us for an application form.
Publication opportunity
The Radical Housing Journal will publish selected outputs from the workshops in its Issue 2.2 (Oct/Nov 2020). If you wish your written contribution to be considered for this publication, please see the application form for details. The RHJ is the first open access, peer-reviewed, independent international journal on housing. To learn more about the RHJ, check out our manifesto.