Racialised residential capitalism; residential capitalism; racial capitalism; racialisation; Roma; Eastern Europe

This chapter aims to introduce racialised residential capitalism as a new perspective on the evolving character of urban marginality under postsocialism and through this to contribute to contemporary debates on capitalism and racism as two mutually reinforcing forces. The argument proceeds in two steps. First, the perspective of racialised residential capitalism is defined based on synthesising the literature on residential capitalism, housing precarity, and racial capitalism. In doing so, it is argued that the racialised workings of the capitalist housing system can be understood as a specific source of urban marginality, which, in Czechia as well as in other Eastern European countries, is characterised by burdening Roma households withhousing precarity more often than the rest of the population. Second, the perspective isillustrated with a case study of the Czech racialised residential capitalism, focusing on the mechanisms that have produced such an outcome – the structural disadvantage of low-income Roma households – in the context of privatisation policies, municipal housing, and the private rental sector. In doing so, it is revealed how these mechanisms have built on the state-socialist legacy of housing inequalities.

This chapter aims to introduce racialised residential capitalism as a new perspective on the evolving character of urban marginality under postsocialism and through this to contribute to contemporary debates on capitalism and racism as two mutually reinforcing forces. The argument proceeds in two steps. First, the perspective of racialised residential capitalism is defined based on synthesising the literature on residential capitalism, housing precarity, and racial capitalism. In doing so, it is argued that the racialised workings of the capitalist housing system can be understood as a specific source of urban marginality, which, in Czechia as well as in other Eastern European countries, is characterised by burdening Roma households withhousing precarity more often than the rest of the population. Second, the perspective isillustrated with a case study of the Czech racialised residential capitalism, focusing on the mechanisms that have produced such an outcome – the structural disadvantage of low-income Roma households – in the context of privatisation policies, municipal housing, and the private rental sector. In doing so, it is revealed how these mechanisms have built on the state-socialist legacy of housing inequalities.