Papers by Angeliki Paidakaki
Land, 2025
Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have emerged as alternative housing models mainly taken up by civil ... more Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have emerged as alternative housing models mainly taken up by civil society organizations aiming to de-commodify land and ensure long-term affordable housing, while fostering participatory democratic governance and (re)claiming the right to homeownership. Drawing on empirical evidence from the CLT in Leuven (Belgium) and research conducted between November 2022 and February 2025, this study examines state-led CLTs and their potential in providing affordable housing and democratizing housing systems. The leading role of local authorities serves as a catalyst facilitating access to land and resources while setting up democratic and collaborative governance processes towards the creation of housing commons. However, their involvement introduces market mechanisms that undermine long-term affordability. This research mobilizes the literature on commons and commoning, housing affordability debates and governance theories to explore the paradox of state-led CLTs: Can they democratize housing governance, or does state involvement inevitably reinforce the market mechanisms they seek to counteract? The paper argues that states can initiate commons without fully co-opting them, provided governance is polycentric and reflexive. The contribution of state-led housing commons lies not in radical rupture but in incremental decommodification and emergent commoning, showing how commons can evolve within capitalist states.
Understood as "a means by which society decides collectively what urban [and rural] change should... more Understood as "a means by which society decides collectively what urban [and rural] change should be like and tries to achieve that vision by a mix of means.", there is broad consensus that planning should fully incorporate the notion of sustainable development. Planners have a critical role in envisioning and driving local transitions to sustainable development. This requires transforming what planners learn and how they learn in higher education. This study is the first to identify a set of planning competencies for sustainable development. It proposes in three areas planning competencies for sustainable development, including (a) knowledge to understand human settlements, (b) skills to plan sustainable settlements, and (c) values to stand for sustainable communities. Following a conceptual analysis of transformative pedagogy as a superior theoretical approach to teaching for sustainable development, this study is also the first to identify types of transformative learning activities, including (1) unlearning-relearning activities, (2) learning through new experiences, and (3) ill-structured problem solving. The study therefore makes original contributions to both planning and education literature, in addition to its interdisciplinary methodological contribution through an original design of 'framing and * Corresponding author.
Far From Home? The Role of Homelessness NGOs in Fostering the Resilient Arrival City Through Alliance-Building and Migrant Integration, 2025
and KU Leuven, Belgium \ Abstract_ Resilience is a leading concept in disaster scholarship that h... more and KU Leuven, Belgium \ Abstract_ Resilience is a leading concept in disaster scholarship that has mainly been studied in the context of in situ recovery and reconstruction following natural disasters or in temporary settlements, such as refugee camps, in the aftermath of humanitarian crises. However, it has not been sufficiently investigated in multi-crisis arrival cities receiving acute refugee inflows. The aim of this paper is to fill this knowledge gap by conceptualising the 'resilient arrival city' and further revealing the critical role of homelessness NGOs in resilience-building in multi-crisis arrival contexts, especially through political activation and the integration of refugees and unaccompanied minors. Drawing on field research conducted in Athens (Greece) in collaboration with a Greek homelessness NGO, the paper argues that homelessness NGOs foster the resilient arrival city through the implementation of refugee housing and integration programmes, the provision of improved social services, the formation of socially innovative governance arrangements, and the establishment of strategic partnerships with peer NGOs, international organisations, and public authorities to promote cities and housing for all.
Dissecting the multiplicity of urban resistance: The Dakota Crescent housing redevelopment in Singapore.
Cities, 2024
Civil society actors often combine or move between multiple modes of resistance beyond contentiou... more Civil society actors often combine or move between multiple modes of resistance beyond contentious protest politics and everyday resistance, yet this remains underexamined in the urban resistance literature. This paper aims to advance the knowledge on this alternative approach to resistance, particularly its potential to function as a democratic counterbalance to top-down urban planning, policymaking, and governance. Mobilising the lens of pragmatic resistance and institutionalist planning theory, the paper examines the acts of civil society resistance triggered by the state-led redevelopment of the Dakota Crescent public rental housing estate in Singapore. Empirical research data was collected through interviews, conversations, and e-mail exchanges with 22 civil society, governmental, political, grassroots, social service, and research actors, as well as a review of 177 documents. The findings uncover the ways in which civil society groups consciously reproduced dominant institutions of planning and activism as an effective strategy to increase the state's receptiveness to their advocacy objectives. Concurrently, they sought to reshape these institutions, often by adopting multiple resistance strategies within the same group or with other groups. This political balancing act between institutional reproduction and reshaping limited the possibility for democratic shifts at a structural level, but nevertheless offered a valuable means of influencing site-specific plans, policy problem definitions, and informal governance processes.
The right to housing in the digital era: emerging trends in Southern Europe
Housing Studies, 2025
This paper analyzes the effects of digitalization on the inclusivity of right to housing in South... more This paper analyzes the effects of digitalization on the inclusivity of right to housing in Southern Europe. We examine the impact of digital capitalism on the housing market, the use of social networks by social movements to give visibility to housing needs, and the promotion of digital platforms by public authorities to reduce the digital gap and consolidate the right to housing, especially for the most vulnerable people. Drawing on qualitative data collection in Madrid, Bologna, and Athens, key dimensions of discussion include: the impact of digital transformations on the public housing and real estate market, the importance of digital literacy and resources, the role of non-governmental actors in shaping public opinion through digital social networks, and the most impacted social groups by the recent digital acceleration. The impact of digitalization on the right to housing is found to depend on factors such as the population groups, the digital gap, the territorial context, and the type of digital platform.
Shelter from the Storm: How I experienced the recovery efforts in post-Ida Louisiana.
Fulbright Schuman Blog, 2022
Producing and Contesting Meanings of Participation in Planning.
Urban Affairs Review, 2023
INSIST Cahier 7, 2022
Cahier 7 reports on the roundtable discussion organized and convened by Angeliki Paidakaki within... more Cahier 7 reports on the roundtable discussion organized and convened by Angeliki Paidakaki within the frame of the RC21 Conference “Ordinary Cities in Exceptional Times” that took place between the 24th and 26th of August, 2022, in Athens (Greece). Angeliki facilitated exchanges between scholars and practitioners from both sides of the Atlantic on the resilient and just city in times of “crisis” and “normalcy”. The discussants reflected – from a transatlantic perspective – on their political role and advocacy experiences as practitioners in the non-profit housing sector, and also shared their views on the potential of transdisciplinary/action research in enhancing urban scholars’ long-term societal and spatial impact in and through their interactions with civil society organizations in the field. The well-esteemed discussants of the roundtable discussion were: Andreanecia Morris (Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance), Flozell Daniels (Foundation for Louisiana), Lazaros Petromelidis (Greek Housing Network), Nefeli- Myrto Pandiri (ARSIS – Association for the Social Support of Youth) and Nik Theodore (University of Illinois at Chicago).
Producing and Contesting Meanings of Participation in Planning: The Case of Singapore (1985–2020)
Urban Affairs Review, 2023
This paper examines how the concept of participation in planning has been constructed by state an... more This paper examines how the concept of participation in planning has been constructed by state and nonstate actors in the politico-institutional context of Singapore. Our objective is to gain a deeper understanding of the political dynamics shaping ideas about participation, and the impact of these contested constructions on the perpetuation of the ruling party's political control. Drawing on strategic-relational institutionalist planning and cultural political economy theories, we analyze 312 documents including government and civil society periodicals, parliamentary debates and academic publications, focusing on the planning and participatory practices of Singapore's national planning agency from the mid-1980s to 2020. The findings reveal that state-led coalitions continuously reframed participation as an instrument of economic growth, nation-building and activism-management, while nonstate-led coalitions emerged to transform state-civil society relations through promoting and materializing alternative meanings of participation. These dynamics demonstrate the potentialities and limitations of democratizing urban planning and governance in Singapore's hybrid regime.
European Journal of Homelessness, 2022
This paper investigates the potential of pro-Housing First advocacy conducted by internat... more This paper investigates the potential of pro-Housing First advocacy conducted by international and inter-organisational homelessness coalitions to realise social sustainability ambitions in the homelessness sector. In particular, it delves into the transformative potential of the Housing First Europe Hub – a coalition of governmental and non-governmental organisations in Europe – in changing the governance of homelessness and promoting the Housing First model as a socially sustainable approach to (re-)house homeless individuals. In doing so, the paper seeks to answer the following two research questions: (1) How do international and inter-organisational homelessness coalitions (such as the Hub) improve social sustainability in homelessness systems by advocating for long-term housing solutions for the homeless? (2) Which internal and external governance arrangements do they produce, and to what extent do these novel arrangements realise social sustainability ambitions in the homelessness sector? Informed by theories of social sustain-ability, social innovation, and bottom-linked governance, and grounded on empirical evidence collected during an eight-week ethnographic study of the Housing First Europe Hub, the paper studies social sustainability through the lens of (the politics of) homelessness. It concludes that international and inter-organisational homelessness coalitions foster social sustainability through the promotion of housing needs satisfaction and the formation of new bottom-linked governance structures, especially in the (local, regional, national) contexts where Hub members are based. Albeit these novel governance structures remain highly susceptible to political opportunities and the will of influential decision- and policy-makers, they enhance democratisation and participation in decision-making and promote more socially sustainable responses to homelessness.
Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 2022
This paper contributes to the debate on co-production in planning theory and practice by examinin... more This paper contributes to the debate on co-production in planning theory and practice by examining the political agency of non-profit housing actors–here termed ‘alternative co-producers’–in building an egalitarian city. Drawing from theories of co-production, planning politics, democracy and governance, the paper introduces, theorizes and operationalizes the concept of ‘co-implementation’ as the political moment in which egalitarian cities can be jointly shaped by public authorities, co-producers and the civil society. By egalitarian cities, we mean cities governed by a reinvented democratic arrangement that can better realize policy and planning goals in the direction of “housing for all”. To test the political agency of alternative co-producers in their role as plan co-implementers, the paper relies on empirical evidence from HousingNOLA; a 10-year strategy and implementation plan in post-Katrina New Orleans. By critically examining the politics of HousingNOLA during the first three years of its implementation (2015-2018), the paper reveals the political conditions and practices that have favored or hampered co-implementation in New Orleans and that have determined progress in realizing an egalitarian city.
Sustainability, Aug 30, 2021
This paper analyzes social sustainability in the context of urban housing through the lens of ins... more This paper analyzes social sustainability in the context of urban housing through the lens of institutional capital. It examines how civil society housing actors co-construct bottom-linked governance arrangements by interacting endogenously with peers and exogenously with institutional actors, such as public housing agencies and elected officials, in order to steer, as housing alliances, socially sustainable residential developments. The paper thus offers an answer to the following two research questions: (1) What are internal governance features that characterize such civil society housing alliances? (2) What are their strategies of interaction with institutional actors in order to promote social sustainability and thus counter exclusionary patterns in urban housing systems? Empirical evidences are drawn from two civil society housing alliances in Austria, ‘BAWO’ (a national alliance of homelessness NGOs) and the ‘Initiative Collaborative Building & Living’. During three research stays in Vienna between 2014 and 2020, data was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with leaders and members of housing alliances, interviews with key institutional stakeholders and web research. By reflecting on the institutional and relational character of the two housing alliances and digging out their potential and limitations in promoting different elements of social sustainability, our paper concludes that social sustainability in housing systems can be realized when it is set as a societal ambition sufficiently politicized by major parties involved in housing systems (housing alliances, governmental authorities of all ideological backgrounds, large non-profit housing developers) that collectively guarantee housing affordability and socio-spatial equity for all.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
How can community architects build socially resilient refugee camps? Lessons from the Office of Displaced Designers in Lesvos, Greece
International Journal of Architectural Research Archnet-IJAR , 2021
Purpose
This paper explores social resilience through the lenses of migration. It specifically st... more Purpose
This paper explores social resilience through the lenses of migration. It specifically studies the role of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps which are human settlements characterized by a transient and heterogeneous community with unique vulnerabilities. These settlements are managed through exceptional governance arrangements between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic humanitarian organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical evidences are drawn from the Office of Displaced Designers (ODD), a design-focused creative integration organization active on Lesvos island. During one-month ethnographic research with ODD, empirical data were harvested through an extensive review of project archive materials including transcripts and audio files of interviews with project participants and collaborators conducted by ODD, architectural drawings and teaching materials, photo and video archives and administrative documents. The ethnographic research was complemented with semi-structured interviews with the founding members and former volunteers and partners of ODD; key site visits to the Moria Hotspot and the surrounding Olive Groves; as well as a desk study on European Union (EU) policies and legislative papers and legal information regarding the asylum seeker application procedure in Europe and Greece.
Findings
Reflecting on the potential and limitations of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps, the paper concludes that in order for community architects to make long lasting improvements they must think holistically and design flexible structural solutions for the entire camp, leverage existing expertise within communities and assist other organizations through administrative, financial and design consultancy support. Community architects are also expected to take active roles in forming pro-equity governance structures and steering pro-resilient humanitarian trajectories by acting as mediators, lobbying their partners, advocating for inclusive practices and social spaces and documenting their projects to build an evidence base across practices and contexts and to strengthen their voice as a collective of community architects.
Originality/value
The role of community architects in building socially resilient human settlements in post-disaster place-based recovery processes has been widely discussed in the disaster scholarship. These studies have primarily emphasized permanent and in situ reconstruction efforts in disaster-affected areas. What remains limitedly discussed is the resilience-building potential of community architects in extraterritorial temporary human settlements characterized by displacement and temporality such as in refugee camps. In light of these observations, the aim of this paper is to push the boundaries of knowledge on post-crisis recovery by re-approaching the notion of social resilience from a migratory perspective and revealing the potential and limitations of community architects in fostering socially resilient refugee camps in new (national) territories.
European Journal of Homelessness
This paper examines the socio-political role and potential of homelessness NGOs in triggering soc... more This paper examines the socio-political role and potential of homelessness NGOs in triggering socially innovative transition pathways towards housing for all during the early years of the post-2015 twofold housing-migration crisis in Europe. Informed by theories of social innovation, governance and housing, and with empirical evidences from Vienna and Madrid, the paper deliberates on the opportunities and limitations of homelessness NGOs in molding neowelfare states and setting forward pro-equity housing policy and bottom-linked governance transformations for the benefit of the sector and the populations they serve (e.g. homeless, low/no-income, refugees). The paper concludes that homelessness NGOs emerged as the core protagonists in finding housing solutions for asylum seekers and refugees in restrictive social housing and expensive housing markets. They also used the momentum to build up strategic partnerships to provoke public debate about the persisting affordable housing problem and the new and alarming integration crisis. The political and societal polarization over the migration issue, nonetheless, did not prove to be the political moment for a resurgence of collective housing activism and the awakening call for revising over-commodified housing systems and promoting more substantial welfare. As a result of this polarization, homelessness NGOs and their allies remained subtly political.
Territory, Politics, Governance, 2022
This paper examines how different housing actors (Social Resilience Cells and their partners, Ins... more This paper examines how different housing actors (Social Resilience Cells and their partners, Institutional Structures, Neighborhood Communities) in post-Katrina New Orleans have activated their social capital into institutional capital. It uses a critical up-to-date synthesis of social capital enriched by governance theories to investigate how new governance hybridities can be shaped in order to guide the city’s housing redevelopment. Furthermore, the paper seeks to evaluate the potential these governance hybridities have in redeveloping the city toward an egalitarian post-disaster city. By this, we mean a city in which all affected neighborhoods are recognized for their unique housing and social needs as well as for their distinct socio-demographic and physical characteristics, and where different Social Resilience Cells are responsive to the needs of specific communities. The paper examines the unique rebuilding footprint and governance formation potential of eight Social Resilience Cells in New Orleans. Our results show that governance-improving fermentations were mostly brought to life by pro-equity and pro-comaterializing Social Resilience Cells and their alliances at the local level during the late recovery years. Nonetheless, the new forms of governance are dominated by the pro-profit political economy paradigm. As such, the potential of the improved governance hybridities in facilitating egalitarian socio-spatial effects has remained moderate.
Architects’ multifaceted roles in enhancing resilience after disasters
Enhancing Disaster Preparedness: From Humanitarian Architecture to Community Resilience., 2020
A wide-ranging discussion exists within the disaster scholarship and practice on the potentially ... more A wide-ranging discussion exists within the disaster scholarship and practice on the potentially negative social, economic, and cultural repercussions of reconstruction strategies. What remains insufficiently explored in this discourse is the roles architects play in addressing these repercussions and hence fostering resilience. By mobilizing theories of resilience and community architecture, we first conceptualize the multifaceted roles of architects in building post-disaster resilience. We later empirically investigate these roles in three diversely governed reconstruction programs in the aftermath of the 2010 Merapi eruption in Indonesia. We conclude that the governance structure of a reconstruction project, as well as its institutional and programming rigidities, largely affects the roles architects play in these processes. This result brings to the surface the competences and limitations of the architectural practice in resilience-building processes, as well as the need for architects to become more politicized to overcome institutional and programming rigidities that limit their full potential.
Social innovation as an alternative narrative
Social innovation as political transformation. Thoughts for a better world, 2019
This chapter introduces the edited book ‘Social Innovation as Political Transformation. Thoughts ... more This chapter introduces the edited book ‘Social Innovation as Political Transformation. Thoughts for a Better World’, which covers the work of a collective of academics on social innovation and socio-political transformation. The book offers a critique to the dominance of market-based logics and extractivism in the age of ‘caring neo-liberalism’. Calling for systemic change, the authors invite the reader to engage in the analysis and practice of socially innovative initiatives and, by doing so, contribute to the co-construction of a sustainable, solidarity based and re-generative society. As such, the book intends to offer various interpretations of the interconnectedness of social innovation and socio-political transformation, which are part of a more or less coherent socio-scientific project expressed in shared publications, pedagogies, research projects, training through workshops and summer schools, exchange visits, action-research, and pro-activist practices.
Bringing the social back in sustainable socio-ecological development
Social innovation as political transformation. Thoughts for a better world, 2019
This chapter covers the question about how knowledge on governance and social innovation have bec... more This chapter covers the question about how knowledge on governance and social innovation have become part and parcel of the study of socio-ecological development. It starts by recalling the contribution of Old Institutionalism and how this inspired work on territorial development and social sustainability. Second, it looks at current work aiming at rescuing the social, political and cultural components of sustainability, resilience and socio-ecological development. Third, it depicts socially innovative research agendas for future research.
Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, 2018
This paper examines the realism of the resilience ambition and process of
the U.S. housing syste... more This paper examines the realism of the resilience ambition and process of
the U.S. housing system, shedding light on its heterogeneity as well as the
financialization currently acting as the driving force in real estate
production. The resilience ambition leading to enhanced justice and
egalitarianism is understood as the provision and maintenance of postdisaster
housing for all within an institutionally diverse landscape of
housing policy makers and implementers. Particular emphasis is given to
the post-Katrina institutional transformations resulting from multifarious
interactions between multilevel institutional structures and a diverse
landscape of low-income housing policy implementers – referred as
social resilience cells (SRCs) in this paper. The nature and level of these
transformations determine the degree to which resilience in its
heterogeneous form has been incubated in New Orleans. The paper
concludes with a discussion on the macro conditions and bottom-linked
governance structures under which all SRCs could be better bolstered in
a post-financialization, radicalised neowelfare U.S., and which in turn
create possibilities for materialising the resilience ambition.
Franz Y., Danielzyk R., Blotevogel H. (Eds.), Social Innovation in Urban and Regional Research ISR Forschungsbericht 47. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften., 2018
Public or state entities (state agencies, governmental authorities, elected officials) and privat... more Public or state entities (state agencies, governmental authorities, elected officials) and private bodies (lobbying firms, foundations, faith-based organizations, intermediaries, financial institutions, industry associations).
Uploads
Papers by Angeliki Paidakaki
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
This paper explores social resilience through the lenses of migration. It specifically studies the role of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps which are human settlements characterized by a transient and heterogeneous community with unique vulnerabilities. These settlements are managed through exceptional governance arrangements between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic humanitarian organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical evidences are drawn from the Office of Displaced Designers (ODD), a design-focused creative integration organization active on Lesvos island. During one-month ethnographic research with ODD, empirical data were harvested through an extensive review of project archive materials including transcripts and audio files of interviews with project participants and collaborators conducted by ODD, architectural drawings and teaching materials, photo and video archives and administrative documents. The ethnographic research was complemented with semi-structured interviews with the founding members and former volunteers and partners of ODD; key site visits to the Moria Hotspot and the surrounding Olive Groves; as well as a desk study on European Union (EU) policies and legislative papers and legal information regarding the asylum seeker application procedure in Europe and Greece.
Findings
Reflecting on the potential and limitations of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps, the paper concludes that in order for community architects to make long lasting improvements they must think holistically and design flexible structural solutions for the entire camp, leverage existing expertise within communities and assist other organizations through administrative, financial and design consultancy support. Community architects are also expected to take active roles in forming pro-equity governance structures and steering pro-resilient humanitarian trajectories by acting as mediators, lobbying their partners, advocating for inclusive practices and social spaces and documenting their projects to build an evidence base across practices and contexts and to strengthen their voice as a collective of community architects.
Originality/value
The role of community architects in building socially resilient human settlements in post-disaster place-based recovery processes has been widely discussed in the disaster scholarship. These studies have primarily emphasized permanent and in situ reconstruction efforts in disaster-affected areas. What remains limitedly discussed is the resilience-building potential of community architects in extraterritorial temporary human settlements characterized by displacement and temporality such as in refugee camps. In light of these observations, the aim of this paper is to push the boundaries of knowledge on post-crisis recovery by re-approaching the notion of social resilience from a migratory perspective and revealing the potential and limitations of community architects in fostering socially resilient refugee camps in new (national) territories.
the U.S. housing system, shedding light on its heterogeneity as well as the
financialization currently acting as the driving force in real estate
production. The resilience ambition leading to enhanced justice and
egalitarianism is understood as the provision and maintenance of postdisaster
housing for all within an institutionally diverse landscape of
housing policy makers and implementers. Particular emphasis is given to
the post-Katrina institutional transformations resulting from multifarious
interactions between multilevel institutional structures and a diverse
landscape of low-income housing policy implementers – referred as
social resilience cells (SRCs) in this paper. The nature and level of these
transformations determine the degree to which resilience in its
heterogeneous form has been incubated in New Orleans. The paper
concludes with a discussion on the macro conditions and bottom-linked
governance structures under which all SRCs could be better bolstered in
a post-financialization, radicalised neowelfare U.S., and which in turn
create possibilities for materialising the resilience ambition.