From Protest to Policy: Housing Movements and the Dilemmas of Public Sociology

• In Event: 30659 - Public Sociology and Engaged Scholarship Part II

Abstract

This paper reflects on our multi-year engagement with housing activists and policymakers, culminating in the 2024 introduction of the Homes Act by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Tina Smith. Our work, rooted in public and engaged sociology, began with support for the “Cancel Rent” movement and evolved into the development of the Social Housing Development Authority (SHDA), a policy proposal designed to incrementally decommodify housing and transfer it to community control. Situating our work within debates on public sociology, problem-solving sociology, and real utopias, we argue that co-visioning policy is a distinct form of engaged scholarship that requires sustained dialogue between academic analysis, movement organizing, and institutional policymaking. Working alongside tenant organizers, policymakers, and international housing experts, we iteratively refined the SHDA proposal. However, this process also revealed key dilemmas in public sociology—particularly the challenge of balancing embeddedness, autonomy, and criticality.

Authors

• Gianpaolo Baiocchi, New York University

• H. Jacob Carlson, Kean University