Call for paper issue 19 (2026)
Social production of habitat and regulation of land and housing in times of housing crisis in the global North and South
The advance of real estate development in many of the world's cities, unregulated by state institutions (or with a type of regulation subsidiary to the commercialized development of the city), is modifying the urban fabric of cities, generating strong processes of segregation and socio-spatial exclusion. More and more families are unable to access adequate housing, widening the range of housing risk: we are no longer facing a problem that affects exclusively poor households in cities of the global South, but rather an increasing number of territories and social groups (including middle-income sectors) are exposed to precarious housing conditions and difficulties in accessing land, housing, and habitat.
But the advances of capitalism are not accepted without resistance, and from its crises, alternative proposals often emerge that seek to promote other forms of production and appropriation of urban space. Cooperative housing for lease, various forms of cohousing, and community land trusts in Europe and North America, and the long-standing processes of Social Production of Habitat (SPH) in Latin America, are some of the experiences that have emerged to counteract the effects of urban commodification. Likewise, the institutional spheres in which issues on the global urban agenda are discussed share the diagnosis and consider it essential that the public sector, at its various levels, actively engage in the regulation of urban land and housing. This has led to experiences—mainly local—in which urban management has taken on a greater role.
The growing social mobilization of affected people, activists, academics, and social movements and organizations is initiating a debate on the need to find alternatives outside the market, promoting projects that draw on decades of struggle and organizing experiences and are beginning to take shape in new ways of producing and inhabiting the city. In some cases, the impetus is driven by social movements, with varying levels of tension with state institutions. In others, local governments are taking the initiative in processes seeking to modify the distribution patterns of the burdens and benefits of urbanization.
The international colloquia organized by the Ibero-American Network for Research on Urban Policies, Conflicts, and Movements are spaces for researchers, activists, and social organizations from different countries in the global North and South to meet on various topics in the field of urban studies. Since its founding in 2018, the CU Network has been conceived as a forum for articulating knowledge production on urban problems with the aim of contributing elements for their solution. Therefore, it aspires to generate spaces for exchange between academic bodies, social movements, and government spheres, to contribute to the development of ways of producing and inhabiting more just, egalitarian, and inclusive cities.
This thematic issue aims to discuss advances in experiences with the social production of habitat and policies regulating the urban land and housing market in cities in the Global North and South, as well as their main problems and challenges. To this end, we invite researchers who focus their research on PSH processes driven by grassroots sociopolitical movements, initiatives for the reappropriation and production of urban commons, the design and implementation of state urban land and housing policies that seek to comprehensively address the current housing crises in cities, among other topics.
This call for papers on the theme of the IV International Colloquium on Urban Conflicts is open to submissions and reflections produced in other geographical contexts on the aforementioned topics and others that are part of the urban studies agenda.
The issue is coordinated by:
Nelson Carrosa Athens (UPLA, Chile), Mariana Relli Ugartamendía (URJC, España), María Carla Rodríguez (UBA-CONICET, Argentina), Violeta Ventura (UNLP-CONICET, Argentina), Francisco Vértiz (UNLP-CONICET, Argentina), Cecilia Zapata (UBA-CONICET, Argentina).
