The different sides of the housing crisis in Portugal: A contribution to building inclusive, fair, and effective solutions

Abstract The housing crisis is at the core of the current challenges to achieving wider social equality and justice. Ensuring the right to housing requires the involvement of different actors with frequently opposing views and interests, particularly when private property rights collide with the social function of housing. This article presents an interdisciplinary research project conducted in Portugal that examined the interrelationships between political‐economic and psycho‐sociological dimensions in lay peoples' housing theories and practices. In particular, it focuses on a nationwide survey conducted in 2023, specifically designed to capture the different sides revealed by the immersion of the research into civil society networks. The survey identified four positions on the housing crisis—those of the “victims,” the “privileged,” the “burdened” and the “unaffected” which are grounded in distinct societal, moral and political perspectives. Based on these findings, the article proposes an interdisciplinary science advocacy framework that addresses the complex challenges of thinking and acting together, by accommodating the disparity of views and their grounding while forging common ground for social change. Such a framework is, we argue, the most suited to fostering inclusive, fair, and effective solutions to the housing crisis.