Living on unstable foundations – Tracing climate change-driven housing insecurity in Bordeaux and Rotterdam

This paper explores climate change-driven housing insecurity by focusing on unstable foundations. With climatic and environmental conditions changing, housing foundations, specifically those built on clay soils and in coastal areas, become unstable as soil properties adapt to prolonged periods of heat and heavy rainfalls. Taking the issues of housing foundations as our point of departure, we show that unstable housing foundations are producing new forms of material insecurity and argue that we need to come to a more nuanced understanding of their political, financial, and socio-emotional repercussions. As we illustrate, technical issues regarding housing foundations are, on the one hand, highly politicized as solutions are costly and responsibilities obscure. On the other hand, they affect the subjective feeling of security and home as the material basis of housing becomes destabilized. We follow the contested issue of housing foundations in Bordeaux, France, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Our comparison draws on media analysis, observations during field stays in both cities, as well as key informant interviews. We argue that foundation issues expose the intertwined economic, social, and political dynamics of climate‑changed cities, demanding more coordinated policy responses.