In cities across the world, poor and working-class people are struggling to find affordable accommodation. Social housing has therefore received renewed policy and scholarly attention as a means to realise the right to adequate housing for everyone. This talk will contrast experiences with social housing across Vienna (Austria) and Cape Town (South Africa) to dis­cuss its potentials and limitations in creating more inclusive and just cities. In the spirit of global comparative urbanism, the talk will centre on the question: what can we learn about social housing by bringing these two very different cities into a conversation? Through a careful analysis of social housing in the two contexts - along key dimensions including the history, models, institutional governance and management, financing and impacts - the seminar will try to stimulate an intellectual debate about the role of social housing in the 21st century. 

Dr Andreas Scheba is a Senior Research Specialist in the Equitable Educa­tion and Economies Division of the Human Sciences Research Council {HSRC), and Associate Professor in the Centre for Development Support at the University of the Free State {UFS). After obtaining his PhD in Develop­ment Policy & Management from the University of Manchester in 2014, he started working at the HSRC in August 2015 and has since conducted ex­tensive research on how housing policy and practices shape cities in South Africa and beyond.