HOUSING RETROFIT AND THE JUST TRANSITION IN THE METROPOLIS : Governance, Redistribution, and Inequality in London and Barcelona

Source abstract

Abstract Metropolises are rapidly becoming spaces of stark inequalities. While much literature has emphasized the metropolitan scale as a driver of agglomeration economies, recent scholarship highlights either the ungovernable nature of large metropolises or the weak redistributive capacity of their governments as key causes of increasingly unequal urban landscapes. In response, this article advances the idea of a ‘just metropolitan turn’, arguing that metropolitan governance can play a crucial role in mitigating inequalities and that its redistributive capacity depends on governance characteristics. Through a comparative analysis of Barcelona and London, this article examines: (1) how governance processes shape housing retrofit in both cities, and (2) how their governance arrangements influence their capacity to address inequalities and promote a more just retrofit. Findings show that metropolitan policies and governance arrangements are vital not only in supporting municipal units but also in setting more ambitious, redistributive retrofit agendas. However, important differences emerge between the two cases in balancing municipal subsidiarity and metropolitan leadership, reconciling redistribution with recalibration of needs, and negotiating relations between public and private actors. These differences suggest that neither strong metropolitan institutionalization nor institutional fragmentation alone guarantees redistributive outcomes; rather, clearer delegation of competences, objective prioritization, and cross‐scale collaboration can yield more equitable outcomes.