Socialization from a degrowth perspective

Social-ecological crises in the housing sector and their potential resolution through socialization and degrowth approaches

Abstract

This paper examines the socio-ecological crises in the German housing sector and analyzes their potential resolution through a combination of socialization strategies and degrowth approaches. The starting point is the observation that current political measures, such as new construction, the so called Mietpreisbremse, and energy-efficient modernization, neither effectively alleviate the housing crisis nor sufficiently advance ecological goals. Instead, they exacerbate institutionalized goal conflicts by attempting to solve social and ecological problems at the expense of one another. To address this, the paper first elaborates on the social and ecological dynamics of the housing sector and their mutual reinforcement.

Central to these dynamics is the commodified, profit-oriented organization of housing under capitalist property relations. Against the theoretical backdrop of the political economy of housing, the paper analyzes the influence of financialization in the housing sector on social and ecological crises. This is contrasted with forms of decommodified housing provision and their impacts on these crises.

The paper then discusses structural growth imperatives and strategies from degrowth approaches that aim to address socio-ecological crises in the housing sector. These include redistribution, the reduction of per-capita living space, building within existing structures, energy sufficiency, collective housing models, and democratization.

Building on this, the initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen (DWE) is examined as a case study. The DWE concept is analyzed in terms of its potential for combination with degrowth strategies and the possible effects of this synthesis on socio-ecological crises in the housing sector.

The paper concludes that complementing the socialization concept of DWE with degrowth approaches could unfold a complementary transformative potential. In this way, both social and ecological aspects of the current crises could be addressed more effectively. At the same time, the paper emphasizes that such outcomes are not automatic, since the democratic decision-making structures inherent in the socialization concept do not allow for results of democratic processes to be predicted, and moreover there are currently differing positions on the need for new construction between DWE and degrowth approaches.