Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NOMAD-Outcome (Not for sale! Explaining the Outcomes of Neighbourhood Mobilisations Against Displacement)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-08-31
The NOMAD-Outcome project (“Explaining the Outcomes of Neighbourhood Mobilizations Against Displacement”), explores the dynamics of collective organization for housing justice in working-class neighbourhoods in Barcelona, Montreal and Lyon. It creates knowledge around two questions:
1) what are the outcomes of these mobilizations? Said differently: What do these mobilizations achieve? What impact do they produce for the people involved and the environment where these mobilizations occur?
2) what role does the neighbourhood, understood as a space of proximity, play in the dynamics of protest? How are the resources provided by the neighbourhood used in collective mobilizations? Do interpersonal space-based relations influence protest dynamics?
This goal is to be achieved through three operational objectives:
1) Documenting collective struggles and activist practices around housing issues in Parc-Extension (Montreal), Poble-Sec (Barcelona) and La Guillotière (Lyon) through qualitative research encompassing diverse techniques (interviews, participant observation and document analysis) and producing sociological analysis which is to be delivered through scientific communications and publications;
2) Producing materials allowing knowledge transfer beyond academic circles, and a fruitful conversation between researchers and housing justice groups.
3) Acquiring, as a researcher, new theoretical and technical, transferable skills.
1) what are the outcomes of these mobilizations? Said differently: What do these mobilizations achieve? What impact do they produce for the people involved and the environment where these mobilizations occur?
2) what role does the neighbourhood, understood as a space of proximity, play in the dynamics of protest? How are the resources provided by the neighbourhood used in collective mobilizations? Do interpersonal space-based relations influence protest dynamics?
This goal is to be achieved through three operational objectives:
1) Documenting collective struggles and activist practices around housing issues in Parc-Extension (Montreal), Poble-Sec (Barcelona) and La Guillotière (Lyon) through qualitative research encompassing diverse techniques (interviews, participant observation and document analysis) and producing sociological analysis which is to be delivered through scientific communications and publications;
2) Producing materials allowing knowledge transfer beyond academic circles, and a fruitful conversation between researchers and housing justice groups.
3) Acquiring, as a researcher, new theoretical and technical, transferable skills.
Many tasks and types of work have been performed during the first 24 months of the MSCA (the period covered in this report). Three labels describe them:
1) Fieldwork (data collection work): 18 months were dedicated to the realization of fieldwork in Montreal (12 months) and Barcelona (6 months, which coincided with a secondment from October 2023 to March 2024). Both in Montreal and Barcelona, the resarcher deployed an ethnographic methodology in neighbourhood organizations that support tenants facing housing problems.
2) Analysis: data has been analyzed in several steps and via diverse activities. Discussions with the scientific supervisors of this MSCA (Julie-Anne Boudreau and Jean-Yves Authier) and with other colleagues who have progressively become monitors of the action, contribute to this analysis. The analytical work has also profited from organizing several events meant to present and discuss the results of the project.
3) Research-action work: doing ethnography with three housing rights organizations has opened the path to fruitful collaborations between the researcher and citizen groups. In Barcelona, this collaboration has materialized in the production of a collective manuscript about a housing group.
The main results acheived so far are:
1) Analytical:
a. Variation of contentious repertoires among protest sites. The way housing activist oppose displacement and housing oppression in working-class gentrifying neighborhoods differ between cities, particularly regarding direct and disruptive action which is widely used in Barcelona but marginal in Montreal.
b. Unexpected power relations within housing groups. Particularly in Barcelona, neighborhood-based housing groups engage in “collective advising” techniques to empower members and activate learning processes. Yet, structural inequalities among members determine how each participant engages in this practice. In turn, the way people perform this type of practice contributes to consolidate hierarchies within activist groups.
c. Development of “collaborative public management” relations between housing groups and the municipal administration. The work and actions of housing committees give rise to a variety of perceptions among borough players that make visible logics of distinction and strategic interaction borough actors which, under certain conditions, can favour the advancement of the housing committees’ demands.
d. Uneven construction of neighborhood ideals. In Montreal and Barcelona, “neighbourhoods” are relationally “constituted” by local actors, with activists playing a central role in this constitution as political entrepreneurs. The survey shows that activists “constitute” differently their “neighborhood” and attach diverse representations to their residential areas.
2) Training: during the first 24 months of the action, the researcher took part in a seven-week seminar on Urban studies led by Nathan McClintock (INRS) and Thin Tahn Hien Pham (UQAM) in Montreal; she also attended a one-session training on oral history at the Center for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University (Montreal). The training on filming that was mentioned in Annex 1 was eventually replaced by self-learning.
3) Dissemination: a website about the project was created (https://www.nomad-outcome.info(opens in new window)). During the first 24 month of the action, the researcher participated in 4 international conferences, 4 seminars, and 3 dissemination conferences, and she organized 4 scientific events and prepared 3 publications. The project produced three open datasets that were published in Recherche Data Gouv.
1) Fieldwork (data collection work): 18 months were dedicated to the realization of fieldwork in Montreal (12 months) and Barcelona (6 months, which coincided with a secondment from October 2023 to March 2024). Both in Montreal and Barcelona, the resarcher deployed an ethnographic methodology in neighbourhood organizations that support tenants facing housing problems.
2) Analysis: data has been analyzed in several steps and via diverse activities. Discussions with the scientific supervisors of this MSCA (Julie-Anne Boudreau and Jean-Yves Authier) and with other colleagues who have progressively become monitors of the action, contribute to this analysis. The analytical work has also profited from organizing several events meant to present and discuss the results of the project.
3) Research-action work: doing ethnography with three housing rights organizations has opened the path to fruitful collaborations between the researcher and citizen groups. In Barcelona, this collaboration has materialized in the production of a collective manuscript about a housing group.
The main results acheived so far are:
1) Analytical:
a. Variation of contentious repertoires among protest sites. The way housing activist oppose displacement and housing oppression in working-class gentrifying neighborhoods differ between cities, particularly regarding direct and disruptive action which is widely used in Barcelona but marginal in Montreal.
b. Unexpected power relations within housing groups. Particularly in Barcelona, neighborhood-based housing groups engage in “collective advising” techniques to empower members and activate learning processes. Yet, structural inequalities among members determine how each participant engages in this practice. In turn, the way people perform this type of practice contributes to consolidate hierarchies within activist groups.
c. Development of “collaborative public management” relations between housing groups and the municipal administration. The work and actions of housing committees give rise to a variety of perceptions among borough players that make visible logics of distinction and strategic interaction borough actors which, under certain conditions, can favour the advancement of the housing committees’ demands.
d. Uneven construction of neighborhood ideals. In Montreal and Barcelona, “neighbourhoods” are relationally “constituted” by local actors, with activists playing a central role in this constitution as political entrepreneurs. The survey shows that activists “constitute” differently their “neighborhood” and attach diverse representations to their residential areas.
2) Training: during the first 24 months of the action, the researcher took part in a seven-week seminar on Urban studies led by Nathan McClintock (INRS) and Thin Tahn Hien Pham (UQAM) in Montreal; she also attended a one-session training on oral history at the Center for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University (Montreal). The training on filming that was mentioned in Annex 1 was eventually replaced by self-learning.
3) Dissemination: a website about the project was created (https://www.nomad-outcome.info(opens in new window)). During the first 24 month of the action, the researcher participated in 4 international conferences, 4 seminars, and 3 dissemination conferences, and she organized 4 scientific events and prepared 3 publications. The project produced three open datasets that were published in Recherche Data Gouv.
Progress beyond the state of the art can already be noted with regard to three aspects.The first aspect concerns the political effect of neighbourhood mobilizations against displacement. The research conducted in Montreal reveals that local representatives perceive housing groups as legitimate partners. At the same time, the former is very sensitive to the protests performed by housing groups. It is possible to observe a “radical flank effect” within the local administration, wherein some political actors evoke the possibility of protests to gain leverage and advance their position within the administration. A second aspect concerns the influence of the neighbourhood in the dynamic of protest. In contrast to research that states that collective action in neighbourhoods depends on the characteristics of the latter, the research conducted in Montreal and Barcelona reveals that the “neighbourhood” constitutes a multidimensional resource (political, symbolic and relational) that housing activists use strategically. A third aspect concerns the production of knowledge within groups. The research conducted in Barcelona has allowed us to shed light on a marginal dimension of the epistemic practices of social movements: the power relations and inequalities involved in these practices.
During the first 24 months of the implementation of the project, the researcher developed and improved her theoretical, technical, organizational, and communication skills. Her original analytical toolkit being formerly based on political and social movements sociology, today it has been enlarged with an expertise grounded in urban sociology and critical urban studies. This enhanced theoretical expertise will be applied to the writing of a book, scheduled for submission in 2026. This submission will be important in terms of career because it as a prerequisite for attaining the “habilitation à diriger des recherches”, which is in turn necessary for strengthening her chances to successfully apply for another European funds. With respect to technical and communication skills, the period has seen the acquisition of competences in filming and editing footage, and website development. In terms of organizational skills, the researcher has augmented her proficiency in conceiving, overseeing and animating international scientific events.
During the first 24 months of the implementation of the project, the researcher developed and improved her theoretical, technical, organizational, and communication skills. Her original analytical toolkit being formerly based on political and social movements sociology, today it has been enlarged with an expertise grounded in urban sociology and critical urban studies. This enhanced theoretical expertise will be applied to the writing of a book, scheduled for submission in 2026. This submission will be important in terms of career because it as a prerequisite for attaining the “habilitation à diriger des recherches”, which is in turn necessary for strengthening her chances to successfully apply for another European funds. With respect to technical and communication skills, the period has seen the acquisition of competences in filming and editing footage, and website development. In terms of organizational skills, the researcher has augmented her proficiency in conceiving, overseeing and animating international scientific events.