Archiving the Housing Conjuncture

Judith Keller, Erin McElroy, Samantha Thompson and Ana Vilenica

Published in Issue 6.2 // Editorials

Keywords: archival turn, conjunctural analysis, documentation, housing struggles, radical care

Abstract:

The past months have continued to exacerbate crises of housing, home, displacement, dispossession, and other state-sanctioned forms of violence and premature death. We witness erasure of histories, lives lived, belongings, and homes, which are intentional strategies to forcibly remove people from place and to make it seem as though they were never there. The authors thus document this conjunctural moment in radical housing struggles and collectively analyze and interpret the current political, economic, and social conditions, not for the sake of the analysis itself, but to inform strategies for action. This documentation encourages us to reflect on the role and value of archives in radical housing organizing. We define radical housing archiving as a collective intervention strategy responsive to the immediate housing crises built upon care for just housing futures. In this editorial, we aim to situate the archive while considering its possibilities for housing movements and radical care.

doi.org/10.54825/ALYF7011

Judith Keller, Erin McElroy, Samantha Thompson and Ana Vilenica are RHJ editors.

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