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Fordist Absences: Madrid's Right to Housing Movement as Labor Struggle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2018

Sophie Gonick
Sophie Gonick*
Affiliation:
New York University
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Abstract

Throughout the literature on contemporary populism in Europe, scholars point to increasing precarity brought about by post-Fordist labor relations as a central component in outrage on both the Left and the Right. Focusing on the case of Madrid and its right to housing movement, I instead argue that current mobilizations need to be understood as the product of the long absence of Fordist urban economic arrangements. I demonstrate how the working class was only able to attain full membership in the city during the recent economic boom. With the property crash, that membership appeared fleeting, triggering both inequality and outrage. Ultimately, I insist on the role of housing in the production of class formation and subjectivities.

Type
Workers and the Radical Right
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 93: Workers and Right-Wing Politics , Spring 2018 , pp. 91 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2018 

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References

NOTES

1. The conclusions I draw here are very specific to this city. Because of the great variation between regions in Spain, specifically around questions of industrialization, this is not necessarily an argument that can be applied like a blanket across the peninsula. However, I do think we see similar trends in other areas lacking robust Fordist systems of labor, employment, and consumption, particularly in the Mediterranean.

2. Holmes, Douglas R., Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism (Princeton, 2000)Google Scholar; Holman, Otto, “Semiperipheral Fordism in Southern Europe: The National and International Context of Socialist-Led Governments in Spain, Portugal, and Greece, in Historical Perspective,” International Journal of Political Economy 17 (4) (1987): 11–55Google Scholar; Lucio, Miguel Martinez and Blyton, Paul, “Constructing the Post fordist State? The Politics of Labour Market Flexibility in Spain,” West European Politics 18 (2) (1995): 340–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar, doi: 10.1080/01402389508425075.

3. Holman, “Semiperipheral Fordism in Southern Europe”; Harrison, Joseph and Corkill, David, Spain: A Modern European Economy (Routledge, 2016)Google Scholar.

4. While most of this section is written as narrative, it relies on extensive archival research on Franco-era housing and urban policy, architecture and design publications, and materials relating to the 1944 Plan Bidagor and its execution.

5. Since Philip II, Madrid had been the political capital of Spain, but by no means an economic powerhouse. It relied largely on money from elsewhere. While Barcelona and Bilbao experienced strong industrialization, the capital city remained mostly a repository for the political classes. This situation is part of what concerned Franco so deeply about Madrid's lackluster urbanism, and has continued to act as a backdrop for many planning decisions in the democratic era.

6. “Declaraciones del ministro de la vivienda, don Jose Luis de Arrese,” ABC, September 16, 1958, Madrid edition.

7. Martín-Santos, Luis and Rey, Alfonso, Tiempo de silencio (Grupo Planeta (GBS), 2005)Google Scholar.

8. Castells, Manuel, The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements (Berkeley, CA, 1983)Google Scholar.

9. ibid., 217.

10. Santiago Carbo-Valverde, David Marques-Ibanez, and Francisco Rodriguez-Fernandez, “Securitization, Bank Lending and Credit Quality: The Case of Spain,” SSRN Scholarly Paper (Rochester, NY, April 4, 2011), http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1802358.

11. Banco de España, “Survey of Household Finances (EFF) 2008: Methods, Results and Changes Since 2005”; Banco de España, “Survey of Household Finances (EFF); Descriptions, Methods, and Preliminary Results”; Banco de España, “Survey of Household Finances (EFF) 2005: Methods, Results and Changes Between 2002 and 2005.”

12. García-Lamarca, Melissa, “From Occupying Plazas to Recuperating Housing: Insurgent Practices in Spain,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 41 (1) (2017): 37–53Google Scholar, doi: 10.1111/1468-2427.12386.