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Domicide and the Coalition: Austerity, Citizenship and Moralities of Forced Eviction in Inner London

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Geographies of Forced Eviction

Abstract

This chapter explores and extends the notion of domicide. The chapter assesses the domicidal impact of 2 UK housing policies implemented by the 2010–15 Conservative/Liberal Democrat government: the criminalisation of squatting and the ‘bedroom tax’. Through these case studies, the notion of domicide is extended to consider the ways in which it is utilised as a technology of governance. The chapter in particular highlights the moralising strategies employed by neoliberal structures of governance that position squatters and social tenants as parasitical, uncontributive figures, and thus deserving of domicide. I conclude by arguing that such social framing, and the subsequent implementation of domicidal policies, reveal UK austerity policy to be a distinctly ideological, rather than solely pragmatic, governance strategy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The bedroom tax has thus far not been implemented in Northern Ireland. As of 2014, Scotland effectively ended the policy when Westminster granted Holyrood the power to set its own Discretionary Housing Payment caps. As a consequence, the Scottish government now covers the cost of all those in Scotland affected by the bedroom tax. Section 144 also only applies to England and Wales, as it has not been implementing in Northern Ireland. Squatting has been illegal in Scotland since the mid-nineteenth century.

  2. 2.

    Such strategies draw interesting parallels with projects of forced eviction in the Global South. Scholars such as Datta highlight the ways in which the figure of the squatter, for example, is normalised as an exceptional, deviant body through legal structures that frame the squatter solely through a legal/illegal dichotomy that refuses to acknowledge informal settlements as home (Datta 2012).

  3. 3.

    Section 144 does not apply to commercial properties.

  4. 4.

    Research was conducted in Camden, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark, Haringey, Islington and Wandsworth.

  5. 5.

    Funding allocated by central government to local authorities to help struggling tenants meet their housing costs.

  6. 6.

    The names of all participants have been changed in order to preserve anonymity.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, UK

    Mel Nowicki

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  1. Mel Nowicki
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Surrey, UK

    Katherine Brickell

  2. Institute for Social Futures, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK

    Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia

  3. School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Alexander Vasudevan

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Nowicki, M. (2017). Domicide and the Coalition: Austerity, Citizenship and Moralities of Forced Eviction in Inner London. In: Brickell, K., Fernández Arrigoitia, M., Vasudevan, A. (eds) Geographies of Forced Eviction. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51127-0_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51127-0_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-51126-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-51127-0

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