Vienna in Transition. (Dis-)Continuities of Urban Change

European cities have been historically characterised by high levels of social cohesion, quality of life and economic competitiveness. Social justice and low levels of socio-spatial inequalities were promoted through redistribution, democratic representation and the recognition of diversity. Considering these characteristics as analytical building blocks, scholars tended to identify the European City as a model. However, European cities are today under strong pressure due to long-trend transformations associated with the post-industrial transition, demographic trends, welfare rescaling and, more recently, the economic and financial crisis. Such transformations are promoting the emergence of different patterns of economic, political and social development for cities: structural factors, path dependency and multilevel governance arrangements play a part, as well as the ability of local institutions in dealing with new social needs and problems. Against this background, the planned research project aims to focus on the transformations taking place in Vienna since 1990 and their consequences. Having a long history of promoting socially inclusive forms of urban development, Vienna is highly representative of the European City Model. Due to the impact of the current financial crisis, austerity policies, and the recent refugee crisis, Vienna is orienting its urban development more closely toward economic criteria. However, systematic empirical analyses of relevant shifts and their implications have so far remained scarce and have not addressed the city in its multi-facet dimensions. In this project, we aim at filling this gap by investigating general patterns and specific trends of the social, economic and political transition in Vienna and its consequences for the inhabitants living conditions in four key areas: the transformation of the labour market, access to and affordability of housing, political participation, and environmental justice and sustainability. The analysis of these key areas will be conducted through the collection and analysis of quantitative indicators, an institutional analysis of policies, exemplary qualitative case studies and an integrated analysis synthesising the main results. The planned project foresees innovative advances in terms of 1) enriching the theoretical academic debate on the European City Model today, 2) adopting a mixed methods approach and 3) enhancing an integrated perspective on multilevel governance and social trends in an urban context.

Summary Since Red Vienna in the 1920s, Vienna has been regarded as a prime example of the European City Model, associated with social cohesion, quality of life, and economic competitiveness. In the past 30 years, however, new urban transformation reinforced new social risks for emerging vulnerable populations, which undermined the building blocks of social justice in the city. As a result of post-industrial transition, demographic change, welfare retrenchment, climate change and more recently the effects of the Great Recession and the COVID-19 Pandemic, Vienna has experienced an increasing pressure to reorient its policy strategies according to austerity measures. This deep transition continues to shift the boundaries of social inclusion in key policy arenas, leaving important consequences for the extent of social justice of the city. So far, systematic analyses of Vienna's structural shifts and their social as well as policy implications beyond a single policy domain have been scarce. Vienna in Transition provided important details about the joint effects of both structural and policy changes in Vienna's labour market, housing market, political participation, and environmental protection, all embedded within its complex multilevel governance arrangements. While Vienna's local welfare system remains strong and crucial for the protection of emerging vulnerable populations, our empirical findings identified new exclusionary tendencies that cut across different policy domains, fuelling socio-economic vulnerability. This particularly true for the city's growing non-EU migrants, young people, and low-income households, whose access to labour market and affordable housing became increasingly restricted by the combined effects of, among others, economic restructuring, federal welfare reforms, and liberalisation. Paradoxically, such changes emerge amid growing opportunities for grassroots mobilization towards sustainable development, producing new social and spatial gaps in political participation and environmental protection. These findings provided the empirical basis for the open-access book "Vienna: Still a Just City?", which was published by Routledge in 2021. Additionally, a number of case studies, relating to specific policy fields, were published in peer-reviewed journals or are currently in review or preparation for submission. Some of these research outputs were used as part of the doctoral theses of two predoctoral project staff members, as well as one MA-thesis of a student assistant. Furthermore, the project will be picked up by two European projects, piloting new collaborative governance strategies with municipal institutions and the social sector for climate change adaptation and labour integration of refugees and asylum-seekers.