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‘Re-occupying the State’: Social Housing Movement and the Transformation of Housing Policies in Taiwan

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Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia

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Abstract

Since the late 1980s, the process of democratization and increased public participation has pressed for the expansion of social welfare in Taiwan, while neoliberalization has affected housing policies to enhance the operation of market mechanisms for housing provision. Nowadays, the Taiwanese state primarily facilitates the growth of housing market and homeownership, exercising little control over speculation. Escalating housing prices have led to a strong social rental housing movement. This chapter explores the diminishing role of the state in Taiwan’s housing system and how housing has been understood by the state, placing the discussions in the political and economic contexts after 1949. The chapter also examines how the social housing movement since 2010 has gradually transformed the role of the state in its provision of housing and what obstacles the movement has to confront.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This chapter uses ‘state’ and ‘government’ in an interchangeable way. When the concept is about the developmental state, the nation-state, or state-society relations, the term ‘state’ is used. The term ‘government’ is used to indicate the central or local (municipal or city) governments. When the local government is not specified, then the central government is in question.

  2. 2.

    The first two periods were under the authoritarian state. The only time the Taiwanese state played a strong role in directly constructing public housing was during the second period, but most of the public housing units constructed in this stage were privatized. Very few low-income families benefited from the privatization because they could not afford to buy the privatized units.

  3. 3.

    The 13 founding organizations of the SHAC and the years of their establishment (in brackets) are as follows: (1) Parents Association for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, Taiwan (1992), (2) The League of Welfare Organizations for the Disabled (1990), (3) Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly (1994), (4) Taiwan Labor Front (1984), (5) Taiwan Alliance for Advancement of Youth Rights and Welfare (2003), (6) Taiwan Social Welfare League (2007), (7) The Organization of Urban Re-s (1992), (8) The Alliance for the Mentally Ill of R.O.C., Taiwan (TAMI) (1997), (9) Homeless Taiwan (2011), (10) Taiwan Community Living Consortium (2007), (11) Eden Social Welfare Foundation (1982), (12) The Garden of Hope Foundation (sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, and domestic violence) (1988), and (13) Tsuei Ma Ma Foundation for Housing Community Service (1989).

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  1. University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA

    Yi-Ling Chen

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  1. University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA

    Yi-Ling Chen

  2. London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Hyun Bang Shin

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Chen, YL. (2019). ‘Re-occupying the State’: Social Housing Movement and the Transformation of Housing Policies in Taiwan. In: Chen, YL., Shin, H. (eds) Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia. The Contemporary City. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55015-6_2

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