Monday, 8 February, 2021
What is the relationship between tech-sector development in Dublin and housing provision in the city-region?
Is there a relationship between tech-sector development in Dublin and rising homelessness?
Tech companies have a long-standing presence in Ireland: IBM and Ericsson established facilities in the 1950s, HP arrived in the 1970s, and Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and Oracle arrived in the 1980s. Whereas these companies built campuses on the urban periphery, Google’s decision in 2003 to build their European, Middle Eastern, and Asian (EMEA) headquarters in the Dublin Docklands marked a shift in the locational preferences of the tech-sector and related activity, such as financial institutions, Class A offices, apartments and hotels.
The renewed interest in the city conforms to existing research on the local competitiveness of the city and its role in national economic performance (Brenner 2004). Endowed with talent, capital, and advanced infrastructure, cities are strategic destinations for knowledge-based industries (Glaeser 2011). That Google, Facebook, and Airbnb, amongst others, lay claim to the Dublin Docklands as their EMEA headquarters is worth celebrating for certain stakeholders. However, urban restructuring accommodating the desires of the tech-sector creates new material, cultural, and social tensions. Of particular interest to this project is the impact on housing, with an emphasis on Dublin’s homelessness and housing availability crisis.
This project investigates if and how tech-sector development in Dublin is impacting housing provision in the city-region by comparing two Dublin neighbourhoods at different stages of the ‘tech-development’ life cycle: Dublin Docklands, a developed tech-campus with some of the largest global tech companies, and the Liberties in Dublin 8, an emergent neighbourhood for tech-sector activity.
The project team are: Carla Kayanan (PI) and Robin Ferguson (Research Assistant) with support from Threshold Ireland.
December 2020
Invited guest: "Urban planning and creating social change", In Difference: A podcast about how people create progress, UCD Innovation Academy, University College Dublin, Ireland.
November 2020
Presenter: "Cities under lockdown: Public health, urban vulnerabilities and neighbourhood planning in Dublin", UCD Research Covid-19 Seminar Series, University College Dublin, Ireland
Kayanan, C.M., Moore-Cherry, N., and Clavin, A. (2021) “Cities under lockdown: Public health, urban vulnerabilities and neighbourhood planning” in Doucet, B., van Mellik, R. and Filion, P. (Eds) Global Reflections on COVID-19 Urban Inequalities, Polity Press.
December 2020
Invited guest: "Urban planning and creating social change", In Difference: A podcast about how people create progress, UCD Innovation Academy, University College Dublin, Ireland.
November 2020
Presenter: "Cities under lockdown: Public health, urban vulnerabilities and neighbourhood planning in Dublin", UCD Research Covid-19 Seminar Series, University College Dublin, Ireland.
Monday, 8 February, 2021
If you have questions and want to learn more about the project, contact us at carla.kayanan@ucd.ie