Summer School 2022 Call & Information

In the framework of the International Building Exhibition (IBA_Vienna) on “New Social Housing”, which will take place in Vienna in 2022, the TU Wien and the University of Vienna established a research cluster (“ResearchLab”) to encourage interdisciplinary, critical and comparative research in the field of social housing and urban development. To accomplish this goal, the ResearchLab started in 2018 with a series of annual international Summer Schools on relevant aspects of social housing.

In 2022, the summer school is organized in cooperation with the Marie Jahoda Summer School of Sociology and will turn to a transdisciplinary perspective on housing production in relation to the economic foundations of building and dwelling. Against the background of an increasing financialization of housing and many facets of everyday life, it will provide a space to discuss in which way the social housing sector is affected. What are the economic foundations of social housing? How are these changing in relation to new forms of regulation and funding? Are housing cooperatives and public housing “safe havens” sheltered from market forces? How is the relation between social housing and other segments on the housing market evolving? The summer school aims for an inter- and transdisciplinary discussion on the economic foundations of social housing.

Themes that will be discussed are:

• economic and organizational models of social housing provision and the changing interplay of financial, political, societal actors (cooperative models, partnerships, CSOs, self-build/incremental housing etc.);
  
• economics of housing production (funding, subsidies, scaling, microfinance, long-term affordability, prefabrication, modularity);
• housing production in a circular and/or informal economy;
• the historical evolvement of specific housing production modes with its policies and laws (e.g., non-profit law, residential property law, funding schemes…) and its material/social impact;
• Social housing production and the context of urban renewal (renovation/rehabilitation);
• land market and social housing.

In a week of exchange and collaboration, we look for responses to these issues and invite contributions from all academic disciplines. The ResearchLab is open for early-stage academics (predoc, postdoc) from all disciplinary contexts as well as for housing activists and representatives of housing and urban policy initiatives who want to contribute to the above-mentioned topics. During the summer school, we will discuss research findings of empirical or design-based contributions. Building on these, we will also work conceptually by example of an urban area in Vienna.

Due to expectable travel limitations, the summer school might be organized in a hybrid way. Details about how online and offline formats will be arranged will be provided before summer and as soon as we can take an informed decision.

 

APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCESS

The documents to be submitted include:
+ Exposé with a description of the research approach (objective/research question/
methodology) or project that will be presented (max. 2 pages)
+ CV and letter of motivation of the applicant (max. 1 page each)
–> Submit to: iba-researchlab@univie.ac.at
Participants (maximum 15) are selected by an international Advisory Board.

 

COSTS AND FINANCING

There is no fee for participating in the Summer School. Travel costs will be covered up to 500 Euros.
Free accommodation will be provided.

DATES

Deadline for applications:  15 April 2022
by 15 May 2022 –  Applicants will be informed of the faculty’s decision

by 1 August 2022 –  Accepted papers need to be submitted in full length (maximum 7000 words)