MATISSE · Post-crisis urban transformations in Athens and Barcelona; a comparative approach

Nearly a decade after its outbreak, the shockwaves of the 2008 global crisis remain omnipresent in Southern Europe. Rapid political, economic and institutional transformations have triggered the reshuffling of housing. Within this framework, transnational investors are entering local property markets, purchasing repossessed houses and/ or non-performing loans. Spain and Greece, and their major cities Barcelona and Athens, are two outstanding but contrasting examples of this socio-political and spatial restructuring. They provide crucial theoretical, methodological and analytical challenges for urban studies and a key opportunity for the development of a novel comparative-relational approach to learn about the local consequences of the strategies of these global actors. The project MATISSE will address three lines of inquiry, looking into: (i) which are the policies encouraging housing financialisation (ii) who are the transnational investors and; (iii) which are the social and spatial implications of such property restructuring. It will bring together an interdisciplinary approach based on a two-way knowledge transfer between the ER’s (Dr Georgia Alexandri) existing research in urban restructuring in Spain and Greece with the Supervisor’s (Dr Stuart Hodkinson) extensive experience and research expertise in housing financialisation, privatisation and corporate mapping.