David Madden

Thatcher’s right to buy policy is celebrated but here’s the cost: losses to us all of £194bn and a fractured society | David Madden A new report details the damage. This was an ideological ploy from which we have yet to recover, says LSE’s David Madden

“Resolving the housing crisis depends upon reversing and replacing the changes to the British housing system and society that Right to Buy helped to bring about.”

Our latest report covered by @davidjmadden.bsky.social in @theguardian.com 🔗👇

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thatcher’s right to buy policy is celebrated but here’s the cost: losses to us all of £194bn and a fractured society | David Madden A new report details the damage. This was an ideological ploy from which we have yet to recover, says LSE’s David Madden

"Before the policy, social housing made up 31% of overall housing tenure in England. Today it is 16%, causing council housing waiting lists and homelessness to surge."

📰 Read @davidjmadden.bsky.social in @theguardian.com on the enduring impact of Thatcher's Right to Buy policy.

Meritocracy from below: dreams, divisions, and the struggle for merit in a stigmatised neighbourhood The ideal of a meritocratic society continues to exert significant normative power in political and public discourse, including in discussions about marginalised spaces and neighbourhoods. However,...

My new article in @city-journal.bsky.social argues for a critical understanding of the meritocratic ideal among urban researchers. In particular, it explores the consequences of how this ideal is reproduced in stigmatised neighbourhoods:
doi.org/10.1080/1360.... @lsemethodology.bsky.social

Join us at the @oxfordgeography.bsky.social for In Defense of Housing (2nd ed.) with @davidjmadden.bsky.social – reading group (1 July) + book launch (4 July). Organised by the Rent Cultures Network. Register: forms.gle/vYUf2F1ciPha...
@potentiaspace.bsky.social

Worst musician-wanted ad on Gumtree

Imagine what the political and economic landscape would look like if, at any point since 1999, instead of pushing the Washington Consensus, the Democrats and similar parties worldwide had actually listened to the alter-globalization movement and the left critique of free trade

Neither of these may be precisely what you’re looking for—when I’ve researched post-USSR housing privatisation I’ve looked at articles—but Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible by P Pomerantsev and Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich, while both very different, are both amazing & devastating

Who runs Britain—its people or the markets & oligarchs?

Reeves is boxed in by bond yields.
But the truth is: we all are.

Democracy has two paths:
1. Obey markets, accept decline and creeping fascism.
2. Disrupt their power. Deepen economic & social democracy.

There is no ‘third way’ this time.

This month is giving serious March 2020 vibes—same pervasive feeling of anxiety and sense that the world is accelerating towards unknown disaster

Congrats Phil! I look forward to reading it

There is no alternative to creating an alternative: critical urban studies in the authoritarian moment Published in City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action (Ahead of Print, 2025)

My editorial in the newest issue of CITY: Analysis of urban change, theory, action www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

London twilight never gets old

😐

tbh I’m starting to think that this Trump fellow might not be totally on the level

What happens when you try to report a post over on the Hell Site. At this rate, this may soon be what happens when Americans dial 911

Thank you Michael, much appreciated!!

Ha, awesome, thanks!!

Thanks!

Thank you!!

Social Reproduction and the Housing Question There is broad recognition today that there is a link between the crisis of social reproduction and the housing problem. But their precise relationship is not always clear. This paper is an attempt t...

Hot off the digital press, my article in @antipodeonline.bsky.social on Social Reproduction and the Housing Question onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Politics in the crevices Join this free LSE event discussing Politics in the Crevices by Sarah El-Kazaz.

How has the battle for housing shifted away from traditional political arenas onto private crevices of the city?

At this event, Sarah El-Kazaz, @davidjmadden.bsky.social and Mai Taha will explore the world of urban planning and design practices in Istanbul and Cairo.

Likewise! Great event tonight

Tonight! ⤵️

Where is Jean Baudrillard when we, improbably, actually need him

Vulture capitalism 6.30pm Mon 13 Jan | Vulture Capitalism book launch | Grace Blakeley, Dr Michael Vaughan | Free public event at LSE

Next week we will hear from @graceblakeley.bsky.social and @michaelvaughan.bsky.social about Grace's recent book, Vulture Capitalism.

They will join @davidjmadden.bsky.social to discuss how the causes of our modern crises are the result of the economic system we have built.

📖 El lunes 13 de enero tenemos la primera sesión del año del 'Club de Lectura Capitán Barrio'.

En esta ocasión trataremos 'En defensa de la vivienda', de @davidjmadden.bsky.social y Peter Marcuse y nos acompañarán @javigil.bsky.social, académico y activista en defensa del derecho a la vivienda

“…it is the first case in 20 or 30 years that Mexico has broken with the neoliberal dogma that there is no money for this.

‘This is living proof that if you want to, you can spend money on the poor.’”

‘Living proof that you can spend money on the poor’: Utopia comes to Mexico City A visionary mayor has harnessed her imagination to promote health, wellbeing and culture in one of the Mexican capital’s most impoverished neighbourhoods

“You know the programme is working when the rich are complaining that the poor have a gym and a swimming pool.” Utopías now! www.theguardian.com/global-devel...