The project (2021-2022) scrutinizes urban renewal and the infill development of a housing community where the buildings are under decommissioning due to forthcoming demolition of the buildings. The housing community is comprising approximately 200 living-quarters and over 200 residents. A special challenge related to this process is that many residents are societally and socially vulnerable, and they may have challenges to find new homes and housing communities. The research project will produce novel information on how different stakeholders’ involvement appears at different stages of the process and how enduring the new living arrangements for the former residents will appear. The residents’ movements to new homes are examined through the concept of housing pathways and the Housing First -model. In analyzing the residents’ housing pathways the focus is on describing how the residents’ relational agency is present and produced throughout the process. Special attention is targeted to how the needs and hopes of the residents are being considered in the whole process.
As part of the project an explicit detection and description of the urban renewal processes is crafted. Hence, the lessons learned from the project will provide valuable information for future and vaster projects, in terms of urban renewal and simultaneously avoiding societal harm and disadvantages for the residents. The research work is carried out in collaboration with the two TAU faculties: Social sciences (SOC) and Management and Business (MAB).
Research group: Kirsi Juhila, Jenni Mäki, Johanna Ranta, Henna Takala, Laura Kalliomaa-Puha (SOC), Päivikki Koivukangas, Jari Stenvall (MAB). Research is part of the activities of MARGI research group.
Funding source
City of Tampere, Academy of Finland (GEOHOME project:Geographies of Home-based Service Interactions at the Margins of Welfare in Finland and Sweden) and Sustainable Welfare Systems (SWS seed funding)
Contact persons
Jenni Mäki (jenni.l.maki [at] tuni.fi) and Kirsi Juhila (kirsi.juhila [at] tuni.fi)