Responses of Activism and Urban Social Movements in Times of Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis in Lisbon

HOW CAN WE QUARANTINE WITHOUT A HOME? RESPONSES OF ACTIVISM AND URBAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN TIMES OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC CRISIS IN LISBON LUÍS MENDES Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, Universidade de Lisboa, R. Branca Edmée Marques, Lisboa, 1600-276, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected] Received: April 2020; accepted May 2020 ABSTRACT In Lisbon, during the COVID-19 pandemic period, new spaces for contestation and the action of urban social movements intensified, capitalising on the visibility for the right to housing, as a basic human right and an unconditional public health imperative, to fulfil the duties of lockdown and social isolation, imposed by the State of Exception. Its narrative and strategies reinforces the counter-hegemonic movement that denounces the logics of commodification and financialisation in the housing sector, placing hope in a post-capitalist transition in the post-COVID horizon. We conclude that the actors in this urban struggle have limited power over the changes they initiate, or make an effort to inflict, if they are not involved in a concerted and politically integrated action, not least because the achievements they obtain are temporary and exceptional, like the state of emergency imposed by COVID-19. Key words: Urban social movements; urban struggles; housing rights; COVID-19; Lisbon INTRODUCTION crisis, not only turns out to be a condition of worsening socio-territorial inequalities and res- A global emergency situation due to the out- idential segregation of the pre-COVID, but also break of the COVID-19 pandemic obliges an obstacle to full compliance with sanitary Governments to mobilise resources to enable standards. Now, the collectives and associations the response of health authorities and imple- that defend this right were able to capitalise on ment economic recovery plans that protect the it as a human right, focusing on the difficulty most fragile citizens from the impacts of the of access to housing in conditions of decent crisis caused by the pandemic. The situation habitability that allow the isolation required of an authentic State of Exception (Agamben by the political health authorities, catapulting 2010, 2020) that exists in Portugal due to the this issue to the top of the social and political expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic and agenda. Digital protests, campaigns, petitions, the triggering of the state of emergency1 with open letters and memoranda addressed to the mandatory social isolation and lockdown, political authorities with responsibility in the as well as limitations on freedom of movement, matter have multiplied. After all, how can we resistance and economic activities, intensified quarantine without a home? (Accornero et al. the discussion around the right to housing in 2020; Mendes 2020). Portugal. It demonstrated how poor access to The period of COVID-19 has exposed the right to housing, in the midst of a pandemic the contradictions of the Portuguese urban Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2020, DOI:10.1111/tesg.12450, Vol. 111, No. 3, pp. 318–332. © 2020 Royal Dutch Geographical Society / Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig HOW CAN WE QUARANTINE WITHOUT A HOME? 319 economic recovery model of the last decade in and some recent interventions and papers on the post capitalist crisis 2008–2009, based on COVID-19, the methodological line is com- the pillars of the dynamics of real estate and the posed of qualitative methods and techniques touristification of the territory, generating rapid (semi-structured interviews to activists2 and crit- growth, but with little environmental, social ical content analysis of social media and other and economic sustainability (Seixas et al. 2015; propaganda) that allow a macro analysis of the Barata Salgueiro et al. 2017). The economic re- various laws that produced quarantine urban- covery was based on a rentist, extractivist and ism during this period of state of emergency, predatory model of austerity urbanism that crossed with a micro analysis of ethnographic generated numerous phenomena of accumu- fieldwork of the performance of those various lation by dispossession taking advantage of the associations and movements, taking into ac- capital gains produced by an overheated hous- count the research-action work developed by ing market, especially in the inner city of Lisbon the author as activist in the last three years. (Harvey 2012; Peck 2012; Sevilla-Buitrago 2015; The paper is organised in three main Mendes 2017). The urban restructuring of the parts. The first part very briefly frames the main Portuguese cities, especially Lisbon, pro- debates on activism and urban social move- duced phenomena of strong socio-spatial injus- ments on the right to housing in general, its tice, massive evictions never seen in Portuguese principles and recent developments. The sec- urban history, based on transnational gentrifi- ond part addresses the new spaces of contes- cation, real estate speculation and financialisa- tation created by anti-evictions urban social tion of housing (Aalbers 2012, 2016; Mendes movements in pre-COVID period in Lisbon, 2018a; Sequera & Nofre 2019). The dynamics of namely, their characteristics and organisa- social protest, demands and pre-COVID urban tional forms, assessing the political potential struggles are now essential in order to capitalise for reversing the current situation of hous- on collective learning, the social capital of the ing crisis. The third part explores the recent networks created and the impact they have had dramatic expansion of the pandemic and the on placing the issue of the right to housing on effectiveness of the COVID-19 contingency the public and political agenda, in the last years plan, and how the intervention of urban col- (Mayer 2010; Colomb & Novy 2016; Sequera & lectives, associations and social movements Nofre 2018). for the right to housing and the multiple and How are the urban social movements that innovative strategies they used were funda- formed in Lisbon in the pre-COVID respond- mental to compel representative democracy ing to the growing and aggravated inequali- to understand and act in conformity with the ties in the housing market during the current categorical imperative of housing defence for pandemic? Even though we know that the everyone. The paper concludes with a sum- COVID-19 pandemic crisis is recent, and that mary of main findings. the problem of the right to housing is as old in Portugal, as in the world, this paper aims to contribute to fill the knowledge gaps that exist SETTING THE SCENE FOR PRE- in the national and international literature on COVID RIGHT TO HOUSING SOCIAL this matter. Did the reorganisation of the strat- MOVEMENTS: DEBATES AND egies of these activisms during COVID-19 allow PERSPECTIVES the response of the government, the party sys- tem and representative democracy, which were Manuel Castells (1973) defines urban struggles made with a sense of urgency, by immediately as reclaim practices that attempt to modify or suspending evictions and moving forward with alter the contradictions that cross the capital- temporary and extraordinary measures to ist city. When there is a convergence of these guarantee the basic right to housing or shelter, struggles with the workers’ struggles, we are wit- that allowed isolation in lockdown period? nessing the emergence of urban social move- In order to answer these questions, and in ments. These, also according to the author, are addition to a review of the national and inter- specific practices of urban struggles with ability national literature on urban social movements to transform structurally dominant urban logic © 2020 Royal Dutch Geographical Society / Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig 320 LUÍS MENDES (Pickvance 2003). For many authors who have political parties) gave rise to the emergence of come to address this problem (e.g. Castells, other forms of protest more diffuse and flex- Touraine, etc.), one of the purposes of urban ible, in terms of organisation, and also wider social movements is that they participate in the and holistic in with regard to the issues in transforming capacity of the mass movement question – from labour relations, civil rights, by virtue of correlation of forces that are estab- political models and the cultural and artistic lished within it. Without this joint action, for expressions. It is not that traditional forms example, with the labour movement – the cen- of left organising (left political parties and tre of gravity of the historical struggles – urban militant sects, labour unions and militant en- struggles lose all its transforming potential vironmental or social movements such as the (Miller 2000; Köhler & Wissen 2003). There landless peasants movement in Brazil) have is thus a need to expand the urban struggles disappeared. But they now all seem to be part to a whole multiplicity of urban contradictions of more diffuse oppositional movements that conferring legitimacy organisation. Such an lack overall political coherence (Mayer 2010; organisation can only process on the basis of Künkel & Mayer 2012). mutual respect and support to the self-worth of Besides trade unions’ action, several col- each battlefield for different pressure groups lective actors who fit in the spectrum of the involved (Künkel & Mayer 2012; Mayer et al. network social movements emerged, clarify- 2016). ing the relevance of collective responses for In the past few years, several theses have social critical needs. The new social move- emerged stressing

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