Socially innovative housing activism: local context and collective leadership practices in Barcelona and New York City

Abstract

Drawing upon a comparison between four socially innovative housing activism initiatives, this paper makes new theoretical propositions on the nature of social change by bringing together a contextual approach on housing activism and an agency analysis of collective leadership practices. On one hand, this paper analyses how historical and geographical neighbourhood features constrain and enable housing activism. On the other hand, the paper unveils collective leadership practices that democratize socially innovative initiatives and make social change happen. Assuming that housing activism is spatially and institutionally embedded, the paper concludes that some leadership practices not only enable the emergence of such processes but also foster their sustainability and increase their impact.

Keywords:

• Housing activism
• social innovation
• leadership
• geographical context
• neighborhood
• community

Acknowledgments

The author would like to especially thank Dr. Sonia Ospina, Dr. Joan Subirats, Dr. Santiago Eizaguirre and Cliff Frasier for their contribution to this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union’s FP7 Marie Curie Actions under grant agreement number 625070-FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF.

Notes on contributors

Marc Parés

Marc Parés is a Professor of Geography at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and head of the Research Group on Urban Governance, Commons, Internet & Social innovation at the Institute for Government and Public Policies (IGOP).