Collaborative Challenges in Addressing Portugal's Housing Crisis: A Social Representations Perspective

Abstract

Guaranteeing the right to adequate housing for all entails the collaboration of various actors that often hold conflicting views and interests. This article aims to deepen the current understanding of Portuguese stakeholders' social representations and practices about housing by exploring what housing dimensions and identities promote possibilities for collaboration or dissent. To achieve this aim, two group discussion sessions were held in June of 2022, one in Lisbon and the other in Porto, involving heterogeneous groups of six participants each with different relations and points of view about housing. The results of the thematic analysis evidence six main themes. Housing as a Physical Space and Housing as a Construct with Individual Significance tended to generate agreement, shared values and representations. By contrast, the themes Right to Housing, Property Rights, State versus Private Ownership and Housing as a Construct with Group-based Significance, tended to raise tensions, conflicts and intergroup contrasts. The findings are discussed considering the practical implications of the collaborative challenges that need to be addressed to realise the right to adequate housing for all. Please refer to the Supporting Information section to find this article's community and social impact statement.