Expulsions from public housing: The hidden context of concentrated affluence

In this article I offer some critical reflections on the central analytical and political/policy issues emerging the special issue of Cities focused on the Right To The City Alliance’s report We Call These Projects Home (WCTPH). I identify three conceptual threads running through the contributions to the special issue: stigma, grief, and ‘emplacement’, and I want to argue that a focus on all three is of fundamental importance in understanding the contemporary plight of the working class under the urbanisation of neoliberalism, and in informing possible strategies of resistance. I conclude with a critique of policy-driven housing research, and suggest that a highly critical focus on concentrations of affluence – including exploring the possibilities for dispersing the rich – is needed in order to support grassroots base-building endeavours like the WCTPH report.

► Offers critical reflections on central themes in a special issue of Cities focused on the We Call These Projects Home report. ► Analyses three conceptual threads in contributions to the special issue: territorial stigmatization, grief, and ’emplacement’. ► Concludes with a critique of policy-driven housing research, calling for a critical focus on concentrations of affluence.