https://cmmm-maps.eu/barcelona/
About
“Stop Evictions!” is a website that was developed within the framework of the CMMM research project that has accompanied the wider activities of the Observatori DESC since March 2020. It is a product of ODESC’s larger work of providing evidence and resources to facilitate changes in policies and procedures related to housing. These maps are the result of various exchanges within our networks, and we are particularly grateful for the support of the contributors (see below) and the visual intelligence team. The intention of the initiative is to offer these mapping tools to the groups fighting for housing rights in Catalonia.
CMMM – Critical Mapping in Municipalist Movements is a 3.5-year research project that brings together an international team from Berlin, Belgrade, and Barcelona. It is hosted at K LAB, TU Berlin, supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, and implemented in collaboration with AKS Gemeinwohl (BLN), Kollektiv Raumstation (BLN), Ministarstvo Prostora (Ministry of Space) (BGD), and Observatori DESC (BCN). In parallel to this Barcelona-based map, the Belgrade Team produced their “How (un)affordable is housing in Belgrade?”map, and the Berlin Team developed their “Commoning Berlin” map.
Prototype Concept
This initiative is driven by the belief that critical mapping is a key tool for empowerment as it allows for the democratization of knowledge about territory and establishes connections and alliances. In Barcelona, the task of mapping evictions seeks to provide a tool to make them visible and show where they take place. Likewise, the aim is to provide information about “who evicts in Barcelona” in order to make the structure of property ownership more transparent. Looking to the future, this website is intended to become a platform to collect different material in relation to housing struggles.
For now, the website hosts two different maps:
Evictions Alert is a map of the calls to stop evictions in Catalonia from 2023 on (yet, only those that had not been suspended prior to the launch date). It shows their place, date, and time, as well as the name of the owner (in the case of a legal person) and the group making the call. The information is provided by the activists fighting for decent housing. The map is intended to shine light on the problem of evictions throughout Catalonia and the grassroots resistance, as well as to systematize information and promote reflection on where the evictions take place. By recording the date and time of the calls, it is possible to trace their temporal evolution in order to identify potentially relevant patterns. In turn, systematizing the data of the owners aims to improve the understanding of the relationships between geography and the structure of property with regard to the problem of evictions. Finally, showing the areas of activity of the different groups allows us to visualize overlaps and similarities.
Eviction Cases Barcelona (2016–2022) is a map of the eviction cases that were supported by the groups fighting for the right to housing in Barcelona. This includes the eviction cases managed by the Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) of Barcelona between 2016 and 2022. It contains the date, address, and housing tenure, as well as the name of the owner if it is a legal person (from 2020 onward). Moreover, it shows the outcome of each case: whether it was suspended in the courts, stopped at the door, executed, or unknown. In addition, the map also charts the calls of different housing groups to block evictions between 2018 and 2022. These include information on the place, date and the name of the group that made the call. In this case, however, there is no information on the housing tenure (rent, mortgage, or occupation/squat), the result before 2020 and the name of the owner in the case of a legal person before 2022. The result is specified only after 2020 and the name of the owner only for the year 2022. The aim is to identify spatio-temporal patterns from the data collected by the groups fighting for housing in Barcelona. It is intended to raise awareness about the bottom-up information produced by the collectives themselves, pointing to both the potentialities and limits of the data collected. In doing so, this map seeks to show how the act of mapping can contribute to the struggle.
Dataset
The Evictions Alert map visualizes the information shared through the “DesnonamentsBCN” Telegram broadcast channel and the calls provided by volunteers from various collectives fighting for the right to housing in Catalonia.
The Eviction Cases Barcelona (2016–2022) map reflects two different databases. On the one hand, the database of the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) Barcelona is built from cases with a court order for eviction, extracted from its website. On the other, the database of the calls to block evictions is based on the information shared by the collectives on the “DesnonamentsBCN” Telegram broadcast channel and similars.
Public presentation
07/07/2023, 15:30h – International Social Housing Festival
Centre Francesca Bonnemaison (C/Sant Pere Més Baix, 7 – Barcelona)
Register here: https://socialhousingfestival.eu/register/
From ownership to access 