In what ways has economic and social policy relating to housing generated structural violence and shaped forms of citizenship within the Lancaster Wes

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In 2012, Political Scientist Kathleen Arnold argued that housing 'is the precondition of anydegree of citizenship', building on David Harvey's 2008 reflection that denying members ofa community the most basic provision of housing results in political disenfranchisement anddispossession. The proposed project examines Grenfell Tower and Lancaster West Estate inLondon, UK, situating them within a longer history of residential development in the area.The project will focus on the manner in which housing policy was applied in the area sincethe estate was built and designed in the 1960s and 1970s, with in-depth analysis of its impactin the years leading up to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. In doing so, the research willexplore the utility of social harm perspectives in understanding policy impacts andexperiences of citizenship by marginalized populations.The residents of Grenfell Tower and the Lancaster West Estate are ethnically diverse,working class and poor, characteristics which in isolation, and combined, have provenobstacles to claiming effective citizenship within the richest borough in England. Theresearch will use in-depth interviews and historiographic methodologies, and draw uponprevious engagement with residents to analyse the economic, regulatory and social policiesthat have informed housing policy and planning in this specific geographical area. It willexamine the residents' experiences of claiming citizenship as manifested in their attempts tobe heard, and the responses to their claims from those responsible for managing the estate indifferent periods of the area's development. In doing so, the project will explore howresidents, despite possessing formal citizenship rights, were prevented from exercising thoserights meaningfully, and examine the how the housing policies they fought to influence buthad little control over eventually contributed to the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy.