Housing the Poor in Paris and Vienna: The changing understanding of 'the social'

This chapter describes and analyses the 'very social' housing sector-that which is involved in 'loger le peuple' (housing the people), as Flamand put it in the title of his book (1989). Then it examines the roles of the various actors in it, and the social impacts of new principles and measures. We ask where and how poor or 'disadvantaged' people are accommodated now in the two capitals; whether these accommodation forms have changed over time and who the landlords or, more broadly, the new actors are. Finally, the chapter asks whether these changes in social housing policy reflect a shift in the notion of the 'social'. Social housing was mainly provided by local authorities, with about 120000 habitations bon marche (low-cost housing units) built in Paris between 1928 and 1939 and about 65 000 council homes in Vienna between 1923 and 1933.