The Interplay Between Health and Housing: A New Challenge?
Guest editors:
Yankel Fijalkow, Centre de Recherche sur l’Habitat LAVUE, ENSAPVS
Yaneira Wilson, Centre de Recherche sur l’Habitat LAVUE, ENSAPVS,
Description
The relationship between health and housing has long been intertwined. Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics refers to a rationalized form of political power that governs populations through mechanisms related to health, hygiene, birth rates, and life expectancy. This underscores the importance of critically defining what constitutes the “bio” in biopolitics
The intersection of housing and health presents a fertile domain for future inquiry, especially in relation to poverty, aging, remote work, and discrimination. This necessitates the integration of objective metrics with subjective experiences of well-being, emphasizing the importance of listening to residents and enabling them to articulate their needs and assess their living conditions through a health lens.
In this context, the study of the relation between housing and health encompasses three key dimensions:
In the domestic sphere, health relates to bodily experiences, sensory perceptions, and emotional responses. Noise and cold, mediated by soundproofing and thermal insulation technologies, are immediately felt and expressed. These concerns manifest in practices involving ventilation systems, space heaters, and air conditioning. Air quality is not solely a technical metric but also a subjective and environmental concern. Similarly, aging populations in European cities underscore the importance of bodily experience in housing adaptation. Air quality is a prime example of public health concerns in urban areas. In industrialized countries, where people spend an average of 90% of their time in living and working spaces, the living environment is a stimulus for health promotion.
Residential Stress and the Politics of Domestic Space
Health-related concerns in housing also manifest as spatial and political issues within intimate architectural settings. Exacerbated by widespread urbanization and global risk factors, loneliness, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are on the rise worldwide. As the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us, urban contexts play a decisive role in supporting or hindering mental health. Despite the urgent need to rethink how care is designed, developed, and delivered, current approaches to urban planning do little to address mental health needs. How can communities leverage their resources and build resilience? The interaction between governance, health, and local planning appears to be an essential link. The aim is to explore the transformative potential of citizen involvement in the local policy-making process.
Preventive Approaches and Health-Oriented Housing Policies
A third dimension involves the preventive aspect of health in housing and in environment. There is a growing emergence of health-promoting housing policies, often spearheaded by municipalities and developers, targeting specific populations such as the elderly, individuals with reduced mobility, and the homeless. These initiatives address both physical and mental health, leading to innovations in neighborhood and housing design—such as the integration of green spaces and noise management strategies. Traditional urban planning instruments are also being repurposed to support these goals. How urban planning and development can contribute to the health, healthy aging, and quality of life of older and younger adults ? This prompts further inquiry into the implementation mechanisms of such policies, the actors involved, and the normative frameworks guiding their actions.
Types of contributions: We welcome standard research articles, Submissions that bridge theory and practice are particularly welcome.
Expression of interest: Interested authors should contact the editors with a brief abstract (200-300 words) outlining their proposed focus and analytical approach.
Publication schedule (indicative):
- 30th November 2025: Abstract submission deadline
- 7th December 2025: Decision on selection of abstracts
- 30th January 2026: Submission deadline for full papers (6000 words)
- January-June 2026: Peer review and revisions
- June 2026: Publication of Special Issue
- June/July 2026: Special session/roundtable at World Planning Schools Congress
