Understanding the place of housing in global capitalism is more pressing than ever, yet the theoretical links between Housing Studies and Global Political Economy remain strikingly tenuous. Building on recent efforts to realign both areas of research, Residential Contradictions is a two-day conference seeking to foster conversations between housing scholars with a political economy outlook.

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Fifteen years after the outbreak of the Global Financial Crisis, the financialisation of housing has continued apace. House prices have skyrocketed again, renewing the social alliance between financial elites and richer homeowners, capable of using the rising value of their homes to boost their consumption. As house costs grow decoupled from earnings, the result is an aggravating crisis of affordability for those too late, or excluded from, the speculative spiral: youths without inheritance prospects, renters, migrants, the urban poor. Over the last decade, urban social relations have become increasingly conflictual, with struggles around mortgage debt, gentrification, tenant rights, or evictions flaring up in multiple countries. How long can the present situation go on for?

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To promote a dialogue between housing researchers and those on the frontline of ongoing conflicts, Residential Contradictions welcomes activist perspectives as well. The aim is to explore alternatives in the present conjuncture and possible pathways to residential transformation. We seek proposals for papers on the following topics (but are not limited to these):

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• Historical perspectives on the political economy of housing

• Property development, construction, structures of building provision

• The role of land in housing provision

• Theories of urban land rent

• New approaches in comparative housing research

• The political economy of urban governance, informality, and corruption

• Intersectional approaches to housing and residential relations

• Ideologies of housing

• Financialised housing and mass property speculation

• The rise of global corporate landlords

• The assetisation of housing and its place in rentier capitalism

• Post-homeowner societies

• Housing activism, including patterns of struggle and strategies for change

• Alternative forms of housing provision: lessons from the past, ongoing experiments, visions for the future