The Right to Housing in the City

A global urban housing crisis marked by gross unaffordability, economic, social, cultural, and political displacements, increasing homelessness, and socio-spatial segregation and exclusion has taken hold. Deprivations are occurring in states across the development spectrum, and urban housing tensions are becoming topics of daily conversation if not outright protest. Much of the difficulty can be attributed to the financialization of housing and the global competitive pressures with which cities increasingly contend. An ‘urban turn’ has even become evident in the global discourse and practice, and this is apparent in the adoption of an urban specific UN Sustainable Development Goal in 2015, Goal 11, which commits to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, with ambitious targets to be achieved by 2030. Local governments have become more assertive with respect to implementing international norms and forming transnational networks of cooperation. In these respects, a few notable scholars have begun to examine the role of cities in international law, and this body of literature is now steadily growing. This PhD thesis aims to make a significant contribution by focusing specifically on the question of housing in cities and by emphasizing the social dimensions of sustainable development. Its central argument is for a human right to housing in the city with a duty to act collectively to ensure this right. Analysis of the scope and content of the right to housing finds its present interpretation narrow and wanting in the face of contemporary urban challenges. There is an urgent need to reorient the right to housing in order to ensure access to urban space and to address the dispossessions taking place in cities.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Martinez, Kaara

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Benvenisti, Eyal
• Ranganathan, Surabhi

• Housing
• Cities
• International Law
• Human Rights
• Urbanization
• Sustainable Development Goals
• Mega-Sporting Events
• Community
• Social Inclusion

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/fb64263f-c332-4348-8d35-4897ffb1fbc0/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.57489

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/310395