Abstract

This paper adds to a revitalization of alienation as a political problem in the field of housing studies, pointing us to property relations that fragment tenants from acting together with other residents in similar positions. Analyzing ethnographic observations and interviews conducted in Basel with tenants facing mass cancellations of rental contracts, it operationalizes the problem of alienation to more closely examine the interplay of property relations and the subjective or collective experience of tenants: The consolidation of landlords’ interests through complicit legal frameworks fragments tenants not only by producing insecurities within affected blocks. This consolidation also drives processes of individualization and conflict between fellow tenants and between tenants and their union, as well as harms tenants’ belief in (local) political institutions. On the other hand, experiencing these fragmentations and the widespread inhibition of people to act together with others is, in some cases, the most sorrowful aspect for tenants facing rental contract cancellations in Basel. With the proposed understanding of alienation, the paper adds to two debates in housing studies: Outlining alienating property relations, it first foregrounds institutional constraints regarding the question of why many residents do not confront landlords’ plans. Secondly, political alienation highlights the sorrow that can stem from the inhibition of collective action. Here the paper contributes to the debate around displacement and un-homing, showing them to be much more than the loss of original habitat. Lastly, the paper responds to the query of how to empirically apply the theoretically driven concept of alienation by moving questions of collective agency to the fore in housing and alienation theory.

摘要

本文补充了异化作为住房研究领域的一个政治问题的复兴，向我们指出财产关系使租户无法与处于类似地位的其他居民一起行动。通过分析在巴塞尔对面临大规模取消租赁合同的租户进行的人种学观察和访谈，本文将异化问题付诸实践，以更仔细地审视财产关系和租户的主观或集体经验之间的相互作用：通过同谋法律来巩固房东的利益框架不仅会在受影响的街区内产生不安全感，从而使租户支离破碎。这种整合还推动了个体化进程以及租户之间以及租户与其工会之间的冲突，也会损害租户对（当地）政治机构的信心。另一方面，在某些情况下，经历这些碎片化以及人们普遍禁止与他人一起行动，是巴塞尔面临租赁合同取消的租户最悲伤的方面。通过提出对异化的理解，本文补充了住房研究中的两个争论：概述了异化财产关系，它首先突出了关于为什么许多居民不面对房东计划的问题的制度限制。其次，政治疏离凸显了因集体行动受到抑制而产生的悲伤。在这里，这篇论文为有关流离失所和返乡的争论做出了贡献，表明它们不仅仅是原始栖息地的丧失。最后，