Royal Geographical Society Conference session Sept 2026

We held a 10 paper session on Small homes, Property Development and Urban Injustice at the 2026 RGS conference in London. This was sponsored by the UGRG and QGRG specialty groups of the Royal Geographical Society and attracted a decent crowd even early on the last morning (at a conference with 50 simultaneous panels).

Spanning empirical and theoretical work in the UK, Finland, Germany and Switzerland (among others) the ten presentations covered a range of topics related to ‘shrinking cities’:

* The growing densification of cities and the implications for human and non-human life (Adam Eldridge)

* The financialisation of property and the shift from the assetization of apartments to the selling of the ‘room’ or ‘bedspace’ (Theo Barry Born, Tim White)

* The urban geographies of small homes and their relationship to migration, mobility and population churn (Jon Reades & Ruth Neville, Nissa Finney)

* The liveability and adaptability of small homes (Oliver Botea Carr, Anne Tervo, Philip Graham, Yesim Desticioglu)

* The importance of legal regulation and the displacement of the precarious into smaller accommodation (Kloosterman)

At some stage we hope to be able to assemble these different ideas and perspectives in the form of an edited collection or book on compact housing in compact cities - watch this space for more details!

Thanks to all who presented and attended, and to the RGS for hosting us.