Dr. Jakub Zasina and Dr. Konrad Żelazowski from the Institute of Urban and Regional Studies and Planning at the Faculty of Economics and Sociology are the authors of the paper 'Rooming flats: How financialisation-led densification is spurring inner-city studentification in Lodz, Poland' recently published in Urban Studies.
In the paper, they present an empirical image of the Lodz "rooming flats". They describe the physical characteristics of such flats, their urban geographies, and labeling. However, above all, they reveal and explain the mechanisms of the investment model behind the popularisation of such flats, and indicate the impacts of this phenomenon for the inner city.
The authors argue that the rooming flats as a housing product results from a combination of several factors. They attribute the leading role in their production to the financialisation of housing, which translates into soft-densification activities of the real estate actors. At the same time, they claim that the popularisation of rooming flats stimulates studentification in the inner-city Lodz.
Dr. Zasina and Dr. Żelazowski see the need to conduct further research on this type of accommodation, also elsewhere in Poland. In their opinion, special attention should be paid to the experiences of students living in such accommodation.
The paper is available on the publisher's website. Our employees and students can read the paper free of charge after logging in to their library accounts. Others can also download for free the so-called accepted manuscript from ResearchGate or UniLodz Repository.
Urban Studies is one of the oldest and most prestigious international journals focused on urban issues. Only 13.4% of papers submitted to the journal are accepted for publication.
Source: Dr. Jakub Zasina & Dr. Konrad Żelazowski
