Variegated authoritarianization and housing crises: a comparative South-East perspective

Post-authoritarian transformations in Eastern Europe and Latin America are often analysed through the lens of political neoliberalization. Drawing on a comparative study of Saint Petersburg (Russia) and São Paulo (Brazil), this article argues that contemporary housing crises in these cities cannot be understood solely through the lens of neoliberalization. Rather than exceptional breakdowns, housing crises emerge here as ordinary and enduring conditions of urban governance, shaped by the interaction of neoliberal reforms with long-standing authoritarian legacies and context-specific forms of (neo)patrimonialism—a configuration we conceptualize as ‘variegated authoritarianization.’ Focusing on urban restructuring projects (URPs) as key policy instruments, the article shows how crisis narratives are mobilized to justify redevelopment interventions that tend to reproduce housing precarity rather than resolve it. While Saint Petersburg exemplifies a more overtly authoritarian and administrative configuration of crisis governance, São Paulo displays a more market-oriented yet deeply patrimonial form. Despite these differences, both cases reveal shared mechanisms through which discretionary power, depoliticized decision-making, and state-elite alliances shape the everyday governance of housing crises. By situating the formation of the housing crisis within historically layered and institutionally uneven trajectories, the article contributes to critical geographies of everyday crisis and advances a comparative perspective beyond Western liberal democracies.