2019 Wheelwright lecture in Political Economy, presented by Susanne Soederberg

The scarcity of affordable rental housing has become a defining social issue with an increasing number of impoverished households embroiled in a vicious cycle of rental housing insecurity marked by over-indebtedness (rental arrears), evictions and homelessness. The latter has hit a crisis point in Europe, as more people – especially migrants, refugees, and single-parents – are being displaced from rental homes due to insufficient or irregular income. Indeed, poorer tenants often pay more than 40 per cent of their net disposable income on rent, which often leads to them cutting back on vital expenses such as food, heat and transportation.

To deconstruct this reality, Susanne pushes beyond dominant debates by treating low-income rental housing as a historical social relation. By this she means that housing is a unique commodity in capitalism that provides a necessary place for the social reproduction of labour power while being simultaneously integrated into the global dynamics of…