High-Rise Housing and Community Activism

High-rise housing has been held up in the mainstream media as the tombstone of welfare state: a symbol of the failure of state-led reform. But does this map onto residential opinion on the ground – or, more accurately, up in the air? Based on years of historical research of grassroots struggles on a range of estates, this talk explores how multi-storey housing served as a crucible for the welfare state’s reimagination. It illustrates the resilience of investments in public housing: throughout the last century, there have been communities who needed it, demanded it, and fought for it. Through crisis and difficulty, people have appealed for improved public housing and forged progressive models for its realisation.