"We Hoped that the Flat Will Be Ours One Day": Fight for a Fair Privatization in the Case of Moje Pisnice Initiative
Abstract
In the present work, we analyze conditions of the tenants' initiative Moje Písnice formation. The initiative was functioning in Prague between 2016 and 2020.
In the theoretical part, we explain the concepts of urban movements and tenants' movements in Central and Eastern Europe and emphasize the role of everyday life and emotions in a collective actor's genesis. We use qualitative methodology based on the analysis of 11 in-depth semistructured interviews with the Initiative members and one supporter.
The case demonstrates how the collective actor is formed in the city space of Central and Eastern Europe. Particularly, we focus on the historical and social conditions of the initiative's emergence, shared identity, housing expectations and shared disenchantment from unfulfilled hopes.
Other important factors are the intersubjectivity of emotions and the emancipatory potential of the initiative's organizational structure which allowed participation for people without previous activist experience. Finally, we speak about disillusion from civil engagement and from the political system after 1989 in general.
Through this research, we make an input into the study about the tenants' movements in postsocialist countries, which are often forgotten in one of the most important transformational processes - privatization. In comparison with the previous research, we focus on the role of shared emotions and subjective experience of the historical processes.