Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia

Development of new cohousing: lessons from a London scheme for the over-50s

There is increased interest in the UK in cohousing as a desirable alternative for older people. The economics of developing cohousing differ from the normal model for residential development; in particular, the participatory nature of the process increases the time required and there are higher risks for both resident/purchaser and developer. We examine the nature of supply and risk using the case of a new senior cohousing community in south London. Given its evident benefits, senior cohousing may eventually become more widespread, and perceived risks will fall. However, the nature of the residential development process means that cohousing will always be at a disadvantage when competing for land in high demand areas like London, and the time required for participatory processes increases costs. To currently increase the small number of cohousing communities in the UK and ensure affordability, targeted measures may be necessary to enable groups to access land and mitigate the higher costs associated with longer term collaborative processes.

Unsettling resettlements : Community, belonging and livelihood in Rio de Janeiro’s Minha Casa Minha Vida

This chapter argues that looking at forced evictions through the lens of housing resettlement or relocation can challenge the common-sense notion of temporal finality associated to enforced displacements—opening the latter up to a broader framework that recognises continuity across space and time. It focuses on the experiences of post-eviction state-led resettlements in 2 Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) housing projects in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and attends to the relationship between those processes, community life and livelihoods—understood here not only as work, but also as the ability to sustain and flourish in life. In considering the everyday emotional, geographic, material and economic dimensions of post-eviction housing resettlements, as experienced by residents, these sites reveal enduring histories of urban insecurity and inequality that can, amongst other effects, reproduce and intensify gendered social structures.

Geographies of Forced Eviction: Dispossession, Violence, Resistance

Today, forced evictions in the name of ‘progress’ are attracting attention as growing numbers of people in the Global South are ejected and dispossessed from their homes, often through intimidation, coercion and the use of violence. At the same time, we have also witnessed the intensification of a ‘crisis’ urbanism in the Global North characterized by new forms of social inequality, heightened housing insecurity and violent displacement. This introductory chapter examines how these developments have led to an explosion of forced evictions supported by new economic, political and legal mechanisms, and increasingly shaped by intensifying environmental change. It does so with reference to the 8 chapters on forced eviction that follow from across urban Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Enduring violence: Ladina women's lives in Guatemala

the choices women have and make within the existing constraints of the sex industry. Her political stand is that the division of legal (pornography) and illegal (prostitution) sex work, as is the case in the USA, does women no good. In addition, women’s limited choices considering multiple constraints to gaining a good salary through satisfying work plus the normative construction of women’s sexuality help explain women’s decision to engage in sex work. The weakness in this argument is that Showden focuses on voluntary decisions, clearly distancing herself from women who engage in sex work because of coercion (be that drugs, abuse or trafficking). Nevertheless, considering this is about women’s choices, Showden argues that only de-linking violence from sex, and devictimizing sex workers (through decriminalization) will help increase the possibility for more creative and equal sexual subjectivities. Sex work needs to be made less exploitative in order to increase choice and decrease harm, and create possibilities for resistance and change. The concluding chapter discusses ‘coalition politics’; although this may be a necessary conclusion after a discussion of increasing women’s agency, it is also somewhat obvious. Many feminist political analyses have ended with calls for better and more democratic politics. Yuval-Davis’ (1997) suggested ‘transversal politics’ and feminist coalition building ‘across difference’. In 2009, Judith Butler proposed ‘precarity’ as a shared experience on which to build politics without doing away with difference. The argument for more open and respectful democratic politics suggests a critical perspective that is simultaneously grounded in respect and solidarity and that aims to transform hegemonic understandings of gender relations. It is such a good and sensible proposition, and is made so well, that one wonders why it is so difficult to do. Perhaps, then, Showden is right in once more emphasizing the need for more democratic coalition politics. But it is not the proposal of feminist coalition politics that makes this book valuable; rather, Showden’s capacity to combine a theoretically sophisticated understanding of agency with an empirical analysis of women’s choices in three areas of enormous norm-breaking potential is admirable and shows that good theory does really contribute to politics.