SOCI 058C. Manufacturing Scarcity: The Housing Crisis in American Cities and the People’s Fight for A Home

In this course, we will investigate the social, political, and economic conditions that led to the current housing crisis in American cities. We will cover the history of private property and its role in the developing and maintaining multiple social hierarchies, including and especially those of race, class, gender and gender expression, sexuality, ability, immigration status, nation of origin, carceral status and others. We will also analyze the ways in which these social categories, and the ways they intersect, determine access to housing and all the other social goods tied to it. Finally, we will look at how policies at the state, federal, and local level and importantly, resistance and resistance movements have shaped how people live in cities now.
Social sciences.
1 credit
Eligible for ESCH
Fall 2025. Johnson.
Catalog chapter: Sociology and Anthropology
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology

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