Crisis in Göttingen’s Corona High‐Rises: Rethinking Urban Justice amid the Pandemic

Abstract

On 18 June 2020, the Groner Landstraße 9, a high-rise in the German city of Göttingen, was put under a month-long lockdown after 120 of its residents had tested positive for COVID-19. Two days later, the residents clashed with the police, "throwing stones, tires and a computer," and setting items on fire, "before being forced back with tear gas" (Deutsche Welle 2020). The night of the clash, I received a call for solidarity with the residents of the high-rise. The call was extended by a group called Anarchistiches aus Göttingen, Anarchists from Göttingen, which, to my knowledge, comprises of several anti-fascist and leftist factions in the city, many of whom gather under the banner of Antifaschistische Aktion, or Antifa.

Dignity in urban geography: Starting a conversation

“…But dignity has not been taken up conceptually in urban geography even though social justice is impressively embedded and developed. The concepts of urban and spatial justice are used by scholars to reflect on the imbalances that mark the life of all cities and to make claims for reducing poverty and exclusion and increasing access to affordable housing (Alyanak, 2020; Draus et al, 2010; Fainstein, 2010; Harvey, 1973; Kingwell, 2020; Lake, 2017). While the explanation for this lacuna would demand a separate article, here we explore what a more refined focus on dignity could contribute to urban geography.…”

Pandemic disorientations and reorientations as legacies: Scoping review of COVID‐19 impacts on European cities

“…Such studies analysed resilience in terms of existing resources, both social (ties, organisations) and material (infrastructure, including especially the presence and availability of green spaces), Resilience seemed to affect the ways in which urban residents did or might cope with everyday difficulties and an extraordinary situation in the form of the pandemic. Three publications focused on housing problems experienced by vulnerable groups: immigrants, the elderly, and welfare recipients and the homeless; two dealt with the situation in Milan (Pasqualini & Bazzani, 2021; Ranzini, 2021); and one dealt with the crisis situation in Göttingen (Alyanak, 2020).…”

“…Lockdowns also drew attention to neglected housing issues. Urban activists warned of increasing inequalities (Alyanak, 2020; Gür, 2022; Mendes, 2021; Waldron, 2022) for “people in situations of homelessness, families living in conditions of extreme housing precariousness or overcrowding, victims of domestic or gender violence” (Mendes, 2020, p. 326). Such challenges were pronounced in countries where a strong market orientation informed urban housing policies, even when alternative solutions had been put forward (Brill et al, 2022; Waldron, 2022).…”

“…At the same time, urban dwellers and activists have reimagined how to manifest protest and advocacy when public space use was restricted and controlled (Alyanak, 2020; Apostolopoulou & Liodaki, 2021; Stott et al, 2022). For example, the social practice of “resisting from home” (Mendes, 2020, p. 325) involved new resourceful strategies such as holding virtual platform assemblies, producing and circulating independent data on social issues, or e‐mail bombing.…”

“…Three publications focused on housing problems experienced by vulnerable groups: immigrants, the elderly, and welfare recipients and the homeless; two dealt with the situation in Milan (Pasqualini & Bazzani, 2021; a Specific topics coded to map the studies focused on narrow themes, such as: shopping, community-based organisations, leisure, conviviality, physical activities in urban environment, recreational behaviour, some of them also coded within. Ranzini, 2021); and one dealt with the crisis situation in Göttingen (Alyanak, 2020). Much more attention was paid to tourism, which took centre stage in cities known as "overtouristified" (Pasquinelli et al, 2021), and which were subject to high levels of visitor influx before the pandemic, among them Barcelona, Krakow, Lisbon, Porto, Rome, and Venice.…”