European Urban and Regional Studies

The European Union’s (EU) Cohesion Policy has long served as its most democratic instrument of integration, offering sustained investment to support the development of vulnerable European regions. The proposed new EU budget aims to simplify processes and enhance efficiency. While reform of the Cohesion Policy is undoubtedly overdue, gutting its content and slashing its funding would be a historic mistake. Sidelining cohesion risks marginalising local voices and undermining the European project. At a time of growing discontent, Europe cannot afford to turn its back on its democratic, locally grounded heart.

This article explores the processes enabling shared housing for students and young professionals as a strategic housing segment for the regeneration of post-industrial cities. It analyses the development of purpose-built student accommodation and related forms of high-density shared housing, as well as co-living, in university cities along the Walloon industrial axis (Belgium). Using desk research and expert interviews, the article examines how specific types of shared housing for young adults align with the strategic interests of municipalities and the market in post-industrial contexts. It further shows how a flexible, fragmented regulatory framework contributes to balancing those interests and power relationships in establishing a shared housing market. In these post-industrial cities facing concerns about competitiveness, purpose-built student accommodation and co-living respond to municipalities’ interests in attracting and anchoring young professionals – seen as economic levers – as well as regenerating deprived city centres and former industrial areas. Local companies and international investors strategically meet public interests by delivering professionally managed shared housing, branded as high quality and affordable for the target demographic. While flexible regional planning and housing frameworks facilitate these developments, the lack of local enforcement hampers their effective regulation. Notably, municipalities may also be opposed to shared housing due to single-family housing subdivision. The article’s conclusion section discusses the relationship between public and private interests, the underpinning discourses and their possible implications. It further points to the potential for specific actors and strategic instruments to help local governments better steer shared housing development and address the risks.

Violence continues to be a concern for policymakers and communities, notably so in urban contexts in which socio-demographic change, retrenched social support and evolving forms of exclusion affect its distribution and intensity. Drawing from a comparative qualitative study in European cities, we analyse the narratives and explanations offered by key stakeholders, civic and policy actors working at the interface of violence prevention and urban communities. Informed by scholarship on street-level bureaucracy and local knowledge, we find in their accounts key operating theories that connect the risk of violence with austerity conditions and their erosion of vital social and institutional fabrics, thereby worsening localised violence in these ‘ordinary’ cities. We conclude that there is a significant disconnect between the subtle and informed accounts of local, civic actors and the drift to further disinvestment in cities and social institutions being delivered by central political institutions. Local practitioners understand violence to be linked to these macro-economic conditions and social inequalities that sit outside their jurisdiction, but which ultimately present major challenges to the fabric of local urban life and risks to particular communities.

Water poverty, mostly expressed as the inability to afford the costs of water, is becoming a growing problem for European vulnerable households, despite universal availability of safe, secure, and reliable water. In this article and through interviews with 112 households in three cities of the province of Barcelona, we explore how water poverty manifests in the daily practices and coping strategies of household members. Findings reveal how these households, while not giving up uses considered essential, engage in demanding water-saving measures (e.g. reduced shower times; short washing machine programs or limited flushing) to maintain basic hygiene standards, imposing sometimes very strict behaviours particularly on children and teenagers. These, often draconian, behavioural adaptations are hardly reflected in the water bills which creates emotions of frustration and despair among respondents. Access to subsidies is also pursued with the help of non-governmental organizations and local services but lack of information, bureaucratic barriers, or legal status may hamper this option. The study also underscores gendered burdens, with women managing water austerity, and reveals concerns about private water management and inadequate water tariffs. Results advocate for policies addressing affordability by expanding subsidy accessibility and integrating poor household preoccupations into water governance. By focusing on lived realities, this research attempts to contribute to advance our understanding of water poverty in the global North, emphasizing the need for justice-oriented solutions amid economic and environmental pressures.