Social Inclusion Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2803 Volume 8, Issue 1 (2020) NewNew ResearchResearch onon HousingHousing andand TerritorialTerritorial StigmaStigma Editors Margarethe Kusenbach and Peer Smets Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 1 New Research on Housing and Territorial Stigma Published by Cogitatio Press Rua Fialho de Almeida 14, 2º Esq., 1070-129 Lisbon Portugal Academic Editors Margarethe Kusenbach (University of South Florida, USA) Peer Smets (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands) Available online at: www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion This issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). Articles may be reproduced provided that credit is given to the original and Social Inclusion is acknowledged as the original venue of publication. Table of Contents New Research on Housing and Territorial Stigma: Introduction to the Thematic Issue Peer Smets and Margarethe Kusenbach 1–7 Housing Stigmatization: A General Theory Mervyn Horgan 8–19 Territorial Stigmatisation and Poor Housing at a London ‘Sink Estate’ Paul Watt 20–33 Historical and Spatial Layers of Cultural Intimacy: Urban Transformation of a Stigmatised Suburban Estate on the Periphery of Helsinki Pekka Tuominen 34–43 Place Narratives and the Experience of Class: Comparing Collective Destigmatization Strategies in Two Social Housing Neighborhoods Lotta Junnilainen 44–54 “A Good Place for the Poor!” Counternarratives to Territorial Stigmatisation from Two Informal Settlements in Dhaka Kazi Nazrul Fattah and Peter Walters 55–65 “Trailer Trash” Stigma and Belonging in Florida Mobile Home Parks Margarethe Kusenbach 66–75 Exploring the ‘Spoiled’ and ‘Celebrated’ Identities of Young and Homeless Drug Users Jennifer Hoolachan 76–85 Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 1, Pages 1–7 DOI: 10.17645/si.v8i1.2930 Editorial New Research on Housing and Territorial Stigma: Introduction to the Thematic Issue Peer Smets 1,* and Margarethe Kusenbach 2 1 Department of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; E-Mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] * Corresponding author Submitted: 17 February 2020 | Published: 27 February 2020 Abstract This introduction to the thematic issue on housing and territorial stigma provides concise overviews of the concepts of stigma, housing stigma, and territorial (or neighborhood) stigma, while tracing back current research on these topics to the pioneering work of Erving Goffman and Loic Wacquant. In doing this, we place particular attention on social responses to, and coping strategies with, stigma, especially various forms of stigma resistance. Finally, in brief summaries of all arti- cles in the thematic issue, we emphasize their shared themes and concerns. Keywords Goffman; homelessness; housing; marginalization; migration; neighborhoods; social/public housing; stigma; territorial stigmatization; Wacquant Issue This editorial is part of the issue “New Research on Housing and Territorial Stigma” edited by Margarethe Kusenbach (University of South Florida, USA) and Peer Smets (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands). © 2020 by the authors; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction are tainted by virtue of living or spending time in these environments. They face personal and collective stigma- It is the goal of this thematic issue to present new tization by others based on being considered unedu- and original research on experiences and social pro- cated, lazy, dirty, immoral, or criminal. Housing and ter- cesses of stigmatization in relation to housing and ritorial stigma is seldom rooted in personal familiarity neighborhoods—as applied, for instance, to people liv- and in-depth understanding, yet it most often stems ing in public or social housing developments, institu- from second-hand stereotypes and false characteriza- tional housing, impoverished neighborhoods, or infor- tions that circulate in mass media and popular culture. mal settlements, yet also to those without any housing, To give one example: The visibility of rubbish or as well as migrants and displaced groups. Residents of trash on the streets of disadvantaged neighborhoods is so-called “problem” neighborhoods and other marginal- often interpreted as evidence for the poor cleanliness ized locations typically experience multiple forms of den- practices and preferences of their inhabitants. When igration that may include cultural stigmatization, physi- these residents are migrants from other, and especially cal and symbolic exclusion from public spaces and institu- non-Western, countries, judgements are typically asso- tions, extreme surveillance, biased policing and criminal- ciated with the migrants’ “inferior” cultural or ethnic ization, material neglect, as well as exposure to violence, backgrounds or religious beliefs (Douglas, 2003). In the crime, disorder, and environmental hazards. People in 2019 Dutch documentary film Returning to Akbar Street marginalized neighborhoods and housing arrangements (van Erp, Busman, & Dogan, 2019), about a street in the Social Inclusion, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 1, Pages 1–7 1 disadvantaged “Kolenkit” neighborhood in Amsterdam, In their overview, Bos, Pryor, Reeder, and anthropologist Sinan Çankaya offers an alternative and Stutterheim (2013) offer a useful and innovative typol- more accurate view of this problem. His insights are ogy of stigma. The authors distinguish between public based on his personal life and research in the neighbor- stigma, self-stigma, stigma by association, and structural hood where large migrant families from non-Western stigma. The concept of “public stigma” aims at those countries live in small housing units, replacing wealth- who engage in stigmatizing others based on negative ier, white residents who moved out when migrants be- perceptions and interpretations. Here, cognitive, affec- gan to arrive. Here, apartments and neighborhood facili- tive, and behavioral aspects of stigma and stigmatiza- ties were originally created for smaller households and a tion are examined together. The second type of stigma, smaller number of residents overall. For instance, the size “self-stigma,” aims to conceptualize the social and psy- and number of trash containers is simply too small to hold chological impacts that processes of stigmatization have the amount of rubbish produced by current residents, on stigma recipients. Third, “stigma by association” can and garbage pick-up is too infrequent, leading to trash be defined as “social and psychological reactions to peo- spilling out into the streets on a regular basis. Poverty ple associated with a stigmatized person (e.g., family and cultural barriers are keeping residents from furnish- and friends) as well as people’s reactions to being asso- ing their own solutions. Due to a lack of facilities and offi- ciated with a stigmatized person” (Bos et al., 2013, p. 2). cial responses, the neighborhood trash problem is spiral- Finally, “structural stigma” refers to how societal institu- ing out of control. To outsiders, it looks like the new mi- tions and ideologies legitimize and cement a person or grant residents are to blame for the issue and, moreover, group’s stigmatized status. We find this typology helpful that it is their cultural or personal preference to live on in that it differentiates the major actors and components dirty streets, yet this interpretation is false and based on that define stigma as a social problem and topic of schol- stereotypes. As this example shows, normative cultural arly analysis. views of places, objects, practices, and moral character We would be remiss to gloss over the pioneering become conflated and reinforce each other over time. work on stigma by Erving Goffman (1963), in which stigma was primarily linked with the social construction 2. What Is Stigma? of deviance. In Goffman’s understanding, stigma is nega- tive moral judgment that is attached to people, and their The example indicates that housing and territorial stigma associates, based on either a physical attribute, group is a complex phenomenon which can be difficult to de- membership, or particulars of their character or behavior. fine and apply precisely in scholarly research. In this sec- Goffman’s introduction of stigma as a topic of sociologi- tion, we approach the topic of housing and territorial cal concern has inspired a large body of research on vari- stigma via a brief discussion of stigma more generally. ous forms of social stigmatization in relation to many top- One useful definition of stigma is offered by Pescosolido ics (for overviews see Link & Phelan, 2001; Pescosolido and Martin (2015, p. 91) in a thorough overview article: & Martin, 2015; Tyler & Slater, 2018). Current issues dis- cussed in the vast stigma literature include, for exam- Stigma…is the mark, the condition, or status that is ple, racialized poverty (Loyd & Bonds, 2018), mental ill- subject to devaluation….Stigmatization is the social ness (Sheehan, Nieweglowski, & Corrigan, 2017), gender process by which the mark affects the lives of all those and disability (Thomas, 1999), sanitation work (Vázquez, touched by it. 2016), and sex work (Benoit et al., 2018). Today’s multi- faceted stigma research has generated a variety of con- Here, we see that stigma, as a noun, is a negative at-