Housing in the Margins (eBook)

Hanna Hilbrandt is assistant professor of social and cultural geography at the University of Zurich. Her research explores marginality and exclusion in housing and urban development as well as socio-spatial inequalities in the context of global economic restructuring. Focusing predominantly on Mexico City and Berlin, her work pays close attention to the everyday politics of city-making and the structural constraints in which such practises are inscribed.

List of Illustrations vi

Series Editors' Preface vii

Acknowledgements viii

1. Introduction: Housing in the Entanglements of Formality, Informality, and the State 1

2. Negotiating Formalities: Informality and the Everyday State 15

3. Footnotes on the History of Housing: Allotment Dwelling in Berlin, 1871-2019 31

4. Housing in the Margins: Halfway Between Exclusion and Homeownership 54

5. The Colony and the Turf: Planning and the Politics of Land Use Change 76

6. Constellations of Consent: Navigating the Politics of Regulatory Enforcement 97

7. Working the Legal Threshold: Regulation, Translation, and Boundary Work 116

8. Conclusion: The "Gallic Village" 134

Glossary of German Terms 144

References 146

Index 173

'Housing in the Margins is a journey into normal-yet-transgressive living spaces on the periphery of Berlin. Hilbrandt powerfully rethinks statehood as the ordinary enactment of negotiation, shattering along the way the tired but all-too-persistent division between the global "North and South."'
Julie-Anne Boudreau, Institut national de la recherche scientifique and Instituto de Geografía UNAM

'This is a truly remarkable book. It incorporates a rich discussion of the lived experience of informal housing in Berlin's allotment gardens. But, in doing so, it also requires us to rethink how urban space is negotiated from below as well as above.'
Allan Cochrane, Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies, The Open University, UK

'Hanna Hilbrandt's study generates new openings for urban studies to think urban informality, negotiated governance, and housing across the global north and south. Firmly rooted in Berlin's distinctive history, this is a very welcome contribution to theorising the urban globally.'
Jennifer Robinson, Professor of Geography, University College London, UK