PusH - Precarious Housing in Europe, aims to collect and discuss evidence on this growing European-wide phenomenon and make it available for teaching and dissemination in our partner institutions and beyond. The lack of decent, affordable housing and the occurrence of informal, illegal, or unsafe housing across all member states poses a threat to social inclusion in the EU, and hinders the mobility of EU citizens and the integration of third-country nationals. However, so far the issue has not been systematically taken up in curricula in HEIs across Europe. PusH addresses this gap by uniting seven partners from both older and younger EU member states enthusiastically committed to higher education and research that actively engage with societal needs, promote the co-creation of knowledge across disciplines, and bridge the research-practice divide. The consortium comprises HEIs involved in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education (Durham, Utrecht, Venice and Leuphana), the Danube-Krems University as a provider of continuing education for working professionals, as well as two partners from Bulgaria and Hungary as those countries where informal and precarious housing is a long-standing phenomenon. The Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (CERS HAS) in Budapest and the Open Society Institute in Sofia as a non-governmental, non-for-profit organization, have an established reputation for providing scientific evidence and policy advice on precarious housing and will facilitate the exchange, flow, and co-creation of knowledge on precarious housing within the PusH consortium and beyond. In order to reach its goals PusH will result in four textbook chapters on cross-cutting issues around precarious housing that will be used for teaching within the partner institutions and will be published open access for both students and teachers beyond this project. Each chapter will be made available as a corresponding e-learning module to reach a wider audience of students, lecturers and multipliers. All chapters and modules are going to be presented at separate multiplier events, in order to discuss and engage with associated partners such as local authorities, policy-makers, CBOs and NGOs. Moreover, PusH is going to organise two summer schools for students and lecturers from within our institutions. Apart from learning about the reasons for, and challenges of, precarious housing more generally, the first summer school in Bulgaria is going to allow students and lecturers to get first-hand impressions of informal housing of the Roma community, while the second summer school in Italy will draw from our partner’s experience and networks in the field of refugee migration and integration, both encouraging students and lecturers to engage with local practitioners. The PusH Strategic Partnership will therefore bring together a wealth of international expertise on precarious housing, migration, and urban change in Europe, along with partner third sector organisations, to co-create accessible and engaging resources for students and practitioners across Europe and to promote widespread understanding of precarious housing as an urgent political issue of our time.
The objective was to create innovative teaching and learning materials in the field of housing and to ensure research and education are mutually reinforcing. Through our multiplier events and dissemination activities, we wanted to encourage the cross-national and interdisciplinary generation and exchange of knowledge and expertise in academia and practice and involve the public and third sector to encourage the dissemination of knowledge. Students across Europe should engage with the topic of precarious housing to develop the competencies needed for fostering an inclusive and socially just Europe. According to the new EU agenda for higher education, higher education should not be detached from societal problems but should play its part in facing these challenges. Therefore, we developed resources to ensure that future generations of planners, architects, geographers, civil servants, NGOs, property managers, and social workers know what causes precarious housing, its forms and how to address the challenges it poses without creating unwanted side effects. During two summer schools, we meant to engage students in direct exchange with affected communities and experts.
Precarious housing conditions are on the rise across Europe. Precarious housing refers to housing that is either unaffordable or unsuitable, for example, because it is overcrowded, in poor physical condition, poorly located or even unsafe. PusH - Precarious Housing in Europe aimed to collect and discuss evidence on this growing European-wide phenomenon and make it available for teaching, learning and dissemination in our partner institutions and beyond. The lack of decent, affordable housing and the occurrence of informal, illegal, or unsafe housing across all member states poses a threat to social inclusion in the EU, and hinders the mobility of EU citizens and the integration of third-country nationals. However, so far the issue has not been systematically taken up in teaching at HEIs across Europe. While there is ample literature on the strong link between employment and housing insecurity and abundant investigations into different aspects of precarious housing, hardly any attempt has been made so far to provide a consolidated overview of the whole topic and thereby put these different facets into the joint perspective of housing-related poverty.