Navigating between improvement and habitation: countermovements in housing and urban infrastructure in Vienna

Andreas Novy, Richard Bärnthaler and Basil Stadelmann

Chapter 16 in Capitalism in Transformation, 2019, pp 228-244 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter investigates the history of housing and urban infrastructure in Vienna by analysing the dialectics between improvement and habitation. It discusses countermovements seeking for habitation in five historical periods: an anti-liberal countermovement (Vienna before 1918), a social-democratic countermovement (Red Vienna, 1919-34), fascist countermovements (1934-45), the institutionalization of the social-democratic countermovement (1945-89), and its erosion (1989 onwards). This historical analysis demonstrates the ambivalence of anti-market countermovements, as they are not unconditionally promoting holistic forms of social cohesion, peaceful communal life, and emancipation. Improvement is not always destructive and habitation not always unifying. Their outcomes depend on their specific form of implementation and framing. The chapter ends with a reflection on how to navigate between improvement and habitation today.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Politics and Public Policy Social Policy and Sociology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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