Housing tenure, climate resilience, and ecological segregation

Abstract

A key challenge to ensuring no one is left behind in the green transition lies in the persistent segregation of urban populations and the unequal distribution of environmental costs and benefits. Residential segregation has long reinforced socioeconomic and racialized disparities, and climate change introduces new dimensions to these injustices as adaptation policies increasingly shift financial and environmental burdens onto marginalized communities. While housing plays a central role in shaping exposure and resilience, the role of housing tenure—especially ownership arrangements beyond market logic—has received limited attention in just green transitions research. This study addresses this gap through a political ecology approach, combining spatial and policy analysis to examine the origins, distribution, and impacts of climate adaptation costs within Copenhagen’s not-for-profit housing sector. Focusing on Hørgården, a stigmatized neighborhood targeted by Denmark’s Parallel Society Law, the study shows how one-size-fits-all adaptation policies can inadvertently exacerbate existing urban inequalities. Findings highlight a missing link related to technomanagerialism, revealing how the interaction between housing tenure, segregation, and climate adaptation financing places disproportionate burdens on marginalized communities. The analysis identifies how institutional silos—particularly between technical and social policy domains—obscure structural drivers of inequality and produce uneven resilience outcomes. The paper offers a theoretical contribution by conceptualizing technomanagerialism as a critical yet overlooked mechanism of inequality within not-for-profit housing systems. It extends debates on climate burdens beyond market-based housing to demonstrate how inequalities become embedded even within ostensibly equitable systems, ultimately reinforcing patterns of urban segregation.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2026 · DOI ↗