Resource context
This resource is the “Housing” issue (#7) of TEMA Magazine, a Europe-focused publication. The database entry lists TEMA Magazine as the publisher and credits multiple contributors, including Anna Lea Spörri, Christian Wapp, Diyan Duke, Sara Pinho, Yana Kyrychenko, Leon Gellings, Marvin Systermans, Mahshid Mahboubifar, and others. The issue curates a series of articles, interviews, photo essays, and features examining how people across Europe live—across ownership, renting, shared living, and homelessness.
Housing as a human right and a contested standard
The issue frames housing as a rights question by referencing the European Social Charter, which recognises “adequate housing” as a human right, while highlighting that the meaning of “adequate” is disputed. It raises concrete tests of adequacy such as whether refugee camps at Europe’s routes and borders can be considered housing, and whether it is acceptable for households to spend over 50% of income on housing. The issue argues that in many European capitals, housing has become unaffordable, making private space increasingly a luxury.
Inequality, displacement, and the politics of everyday living
Across the collection, housing is presented as inseparable from politics and inequality, contrasting those who can secure stable homes with those facing precarious lodging or homelessness. Several pieces focus on structural pressures in cities: rising costs, social sorting, and exclusion. One strand looks at how perceptions of “good neighbours” affect migrants and refugees, noting how prejudice can shape community integration and also intersect with wider structural problems in the housing market.
Financialisation and the reshaping of European cities
The issue also addresses the financialisation of housing, describing how investment funds and banks purchase entire neighbourhoods and encourage speculative investment. A reported example centres on Lisbon, where housing activists argue for a “right to the city,” oppose evictions, and emphasise the role of residents in shaping urban futures. These themes connect housing affordability to broader economic dynamics and governance choices.
Homelessness and responses such as “housing first”
Another recurring topic is homelessness, described as rising across Europe. The collection discusses the “housing first” approach—prioritising stable housing as a starting point for addressing complex social issues—while questioning whether policy models alone can shift deep-rooted societal conceptions about homelessness. Photography and documentary storytelling are used to depict lived realities in different cities, including work that documents homelessness in Budapest.
Lived experience: ageing, identity, technology, and sharing space
In addition to policy and economics, the issue highlights everyday experiences and social change: challenges faced by queer people as they age (including loneliness and the role of community support); the influence of aspirational “luxury homeownership” content online; privacy concerns in “smart home” contexts; and shared living as an adaptation to high rents and limited urban space. One example points to Zurich, where shared housing is presented as a widespread model shaped by market constraints and shifting norms.
Scope and format of the collection
Overall, TEMA Magazine’s “Housing” issue brings together multiple European locations and perspectives—journalistic reporting, interviews, personal narratives, and visual documentation—to map the housing crisis as both a structural challenge (cost, investment, displacement) and a lived condition (security, identity, community, and dignity).