The opposite of Dante’s hell? The transfer of ideas for social housing at international congresses in the 1850s–1860s

Abstract

With the advent of industrialization, the question of developing adequate housing for the emergent working classes became more pressing. Moreover, the problem of unhygienic houses in industrial cities did not stop at the borders of a particular nation-state, as pandemic diseases spread out “transnationally.” It is not a coincidence that, in the nineteenth century, the number of international congresses on hygiene and social topics expanded substantially. However, the historiography about social policy in general and social housing in particular has often focused on individual cases because of the different pace of industrial and urban development, and is thus dominated by national perspectives. In this paper, I elaborate on transnational exchange processes and local adaptations and transformations. I focus on the transfer of the housing model of a French house building association, the Société Mulhousienne des Cités Ouvrières (SOMCO) in Mulhouse, during social international congresses. I examine whether cross-national networking enabled and facilitated the implementation of ideas on the local scale. I will elaborate on the transmission and the local adaptation of the Mulhouse Model in Belgium, taking into account convergences, divergences, and different factors that influenced the local transformations (personal choice, political situation, socio-economic circumstances).

Keywords:

• Social housing
• international social congresses
• nineteenth century
• Mulhouse