Housing Estates in Europe: Poverty, Ethnic Segregation and Policy Challenges

This open access book explores the formation and socio-spatial trajectories of large housing estates in Europe. Are these estates clustered or scattered? Which social groups originally had access to residential space in housing estates? What is the size, scale and geography of housing estates, their architectural and built environment composition, services and neighbourhood amenities, and metropolitan connectivity? How do housing estates contribute to the urban mosaic of neighborhoods by ethnic and socio-economic status? What types of policies and planning initiatives have been implemented in order to prevent the social downgrading of housing estates? The collection of chapters in this book addresses these questions from a new perspective previously unexplored in scholarly literature. The social aspects of housing estates are thoroughly investigated (including socio-demographic and economic characteristics of current and past inhabitants; ethnicity and segregation patterns; population dynamics; etc.), and the physical composition of housing estates is described in significant detail (including building materials; building form; architectural and landscape design; built environment characteristics; etc.). This book is timely because the recent global economic crisis and Europe’s immigration crisis demand a thorough investigation of the role large housing estates play in poverty and ethnic concentration. Through case studies of housing estates in 14 European centers, the book also identifies policy measures that have been used to address challenges in housing estates throughout Europe.

Introduction: The Role of Large Housing Estates in Past, Present and Future Change in European Cities -- PART 1: Four Thematic Lenses for Viewing the Trajectories of Large Housing Estates -- PART 2: Case Studies of Housing Estates in European Metropolitan Area -- Western Europe (Changing Context, Policies and Estates in the UK: The Birmingham Example / The Socio-economic Evolution of Large Housing Estates in Brussels / Large Housing Estates in a Divided City: Berling's Pallenbauten and Wohnblöcke / Large Housing Estates in the Paris Region: The Local Challenge of Internal Social Mixing in Orly) -- Eastern Europe (Persistence or Change: Social and Physical Challenges of Housing Estates in Budapest / Housing Estates in Prague: Long-term Development and Current Situation / Mass Housing Inherited from State Socialism in Tartu, Estonia / Ursynów: Emergence and Evolution of Warsaw's Largest Dormitory Suburb) -- Northern Europe (Equity or Net Gains? Tenure Structure, Perceived Social Disorder and Policy Challenges in the Post-WWII Housing Estates of Helsinki region / Large Housing Estates in Stockholm: Do Initial Conditions Matter?) -- Southern Europe (Social and Ethnic Transformations of Large Social Housing Estates in Milan: From Modernity to Marginalisation / Large housing Estates in Athens: An Uncommon Form of Social Housing Within a Residual Welfare State -- Conclusion (Assessing the Evidence: Past and Present Trajectories of Europe's Large Housing Estates, and a Comment on the Future) -- Index.