Profile

I am an assistant professor in urban geography at the University of Amsterdam. I have developed a research profile at the intersection of urban geography and critical housing studies. I broadly focus on three distinct research lines: on (1) the political economy of housing; (2) housing’s crucial impact on social inequalities; and (3) spatial processes including segregation, gentrification and suburbanizing poverty. My overarching vision is that combining different methodologies and explanatory frameworks is powerful to understand societal phenomena. My approach is therefore marked by a reflexive methodological pluralism that integrates macro-structural explanations rooted in critical political economy with micro-individual quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Beyond research, I take pride in teaching. I currently teach and coordinate master level courses (Advanced Urban Geography; Current debates in geography: the geography of food) and bachelor level courses (Kwaliteit van Leven, Future Planet Studies). I also regularly supervise (research) master students and apprentices. 

Finally, a key value underpinning my work is to contribute beyond academia. I dedicate a lot of time to knowledge dissemination and have become a leading voice in public debates on housing. Most importantly, I am an author at Das Mag publishers, having published two literary non-fiction books with them. 

I am currently also associate editor at International Journal of Housing Policy, and at the Dutch interdisciplinary journal Beleid en Maatschappij. 

<<<Links to my most recent interviews, essays and publications can be found here>>>

Research

A common thread in my research is that I aim to combine political-economy perspectives on macro-level processes with quantitative analyses of micro-level outcomes. Below I highlight some of my main research topics and selected publications. 

For a full and up-to-date overview of my academic publications, see Google scholar. 

Housing as an engine of inequality

In September 2023 I started working on a project conceptualizing and empirically gauging cumulative housing deprivation (i.e. housing being unaffordable, insecure, low quality and unsuitable) and its impacts on different dimensions of inequality. Notably, a key argument in my work is that housing functions as an enginge of inequality, reproducing, instigating and linking different dimensions of social inequality. I particularly focus on economic, health, political and spatial inequalities and interactions between these dimensions. 

This project is enabled by an NWO Open Call grant. 

Private landlordism: investing in inequality

In July 2019 I was awarded a VENI grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for my project Investing in inequality: how the increase in private housing investors shapes social divides. The research project runs from 2020 to 2023. Housing increasingly serves as a site for investment. Structural housing-market transformations contribute to the rise of private housing investors buying property to rent out (“buy-to-let”). This project investigates the rise of private investors in the Netherlands, and investigates consequences for access to affordable housing, uneven wealth accumulation, and spatial inequality. 

Some of the findings derived from this project have been published in peer-reviewed journals:

• I have analyzed and theorized the class position of (Dutch) landlords in Economic Geography (published 2022), unravelled the (networked) geographies of private landlordism (Housing Studies, 2023), and theorized policy responses to private-rental dynamics (Housing, Theory and Society, 2023).
• Together with Richard Ronald, I have analyzed the revival of Amsterdam's private-rental sector - showing how politics have promote a form of "regulated marketization" (Environment and Planning A, 2020). 
• Together with Manuel Aalbers, Jelke Bosma and Rodrigo Fernandez, I studied how the growth of the Dutch buy-to-let market is the outcome of financialized homeownership running out of steam (Housing, Theory and Society, 2021). With Manuel Aalbers I subsequently argued that the housing market is shifting from debt-fuelled dynamics towards wealth-fuelled dynamics, of which buy-to-let purchases are one example (International Journal of Housing Policy, 2023)
• With Barend Wind and Rowan Arundel, I analyzed the revival of the private-rental market in Groningen, a booming university city. Among other things, we reveal a dominance of small-scale landlords but an important trend towards property concentration (Urban Geography, 2021)
• Together with Rowan Arundel, I have shown how homeownership rates have been declining among young adults and low-income households, and especially in major cities. We argue it is crucial to take into account the intersection of age, class and geography rather than relying on simplistic generational narratives (Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2021).
• Justin Kadi, Christian Lennartz and I edited a special issue on landlordism and multiple property ownership for the International Journal of Housing Policy (published 2020). We wrote the introduction to the issue, in which we conceptualize different forms of multiple property ownership. 

Socio-spatial inequalities

In an ongoing research line, I study socio-spatial inequalities at various spatial scales. In most cases, I link these socio-spatial inequalities to housing dynamics and housing politics. 

• I work on urban gentrification, during my PhD research (2013-2017) and after. While most gentrification research focuses on spatial processes in specific neighbourhoods, my personal observations were that gentrification was an increasingly dominant force remaking entire urban-regional geographies. I therefore wanted to unravel the influence of gentrification on socio-spatial inequalities at the urban or metropolitan level. Notably, My paper with Sako Musterd about gentrification and the suburbanization of poverty (published in 2018) is the most-read paper in the journal Urban Geography. We published a follow-up paper in Area in 2021 in which we outline a research agenda to study gentrification and suburbanizing poverty. 
• With Justus Uitermark and Jolien Groot I quantified how different types of housing interventions (e.g. urban renewal involving demolition, or the sale of social-rental housing) contribute to different dimensions of spatial inequality in Amsterdam and Rotterdam (Urban Geography, 2023). 
• Together with Wouter van Gent, I anatomized the residential mobility, social mobility and demographic changes that co-produce gentrification (published in Environment and Planning A in 2015) and the influence of gentrification on socio-economic and ethnic segregation (in the Handbook on Urban Segregation in 2020). With Willem Boterman, I have studied how intergenerational support factors into urban gentrification (Urban Studies, 2017) and theorized how age, generation and life course play a key role in contemporary urban transformations (Handbook of Gentrification Studies, 2018). I also wrote about state-led gentrification in Amsterdam and the changing geography of market-oriented housing policies (published in Housing, Theory and Society in 2017).
• With colleague Rowan Arundel I have developed a fruitful research collaboration in which we study increasingly unequal access to housing and proceses of spatial polarization. Our findings show growing divides by age and class in the ability to buy housing (Transactions of the British Institute of Geographers, 2021) as well as what kind of housing is bought, with important implications for future housing-wealth accumulation (Urban Geography, 2020). We also show that spatial divides are increasing at multiple spatial scales (Transactions of the British Institute of Geographers, 2020). These social and spatial divides do not exist in isolation, but interact and reinforce each other. 

Housing politics

Related, I am doing ongoing research on the politics of housing. Apart from the work already covered above, I have focused on:

• The impacts of rental-housing liberalization on the housing outcomes of young adults (with Amber Howard and Richard Ronald in Urban Geography, 2023) and on middle-class housing prospects (Housing, Theory and Society, 2023). 
• The neoliberal politics undermining the provision of social-rental housing in the Netherlands (with Wouter van Gent, in International Journal of Housing Policy, 2020). 
• How the controversial Rotterdam Act, which excludes certain populations from targeted areas, came into being and its (lack of) effects (with Justus Uitermark and Wouter van Gent in Political Geography and Urban Studies). 
• The housing politics in Parkstad Limburg, an urbanized region facing deindustrialization, structural population decline and class change (with Myrte Hoekstra, Marco Bontje and Sako Musterd, in Journal of Urban Affairs). 

PhD supervision

I currently co-supervise three PhD candidates:

• Amber Howard (2020-2024) on young adults, housing and health in the Netherlands and Australia, dual PhD position at the UvA (with prof. Richard Ronald) and University of Melbourne (with profs. Emma Baker and Rebecca Bentley);
• Eline van Oosten (2023-2027) on rats and socio-spatial inequalities, at the UvA (with prof. Rivke Jaffe);

• Marieke van der Star (2022-2026) on green gentrification in Oslo, Norway (at University of Oslo, with prof. Per Gunnar Røe and dr. Lars Böcker).

Public writing

Although I enjoy academic writing, I get a lot of energy out of popular-scientific writing for a broader audience. Over the past few years I have written op-eds and essays for most major newspapers (NRC, Volkskrant, Trouw, Parool, FD) as well as a broad range of other printed and online media (including Groene Amsterdammer, Jacobin, OneWorld, Sociale Vraagstukken, Socialisme en Democratie, De Helling, Economische Statistische Berichten, VPRO Tegenlicht). 

Between 2019 and 2021 I wrote a bi-weekly column for the website of the Dutch tv-channel RTL Nieuws. 

I regularly appear on TV to comment on the housing crisis (including Buitenhof, Talkshow M, Nieuwsuur), in documentaries (including VPRO Tegenlicht, BNNVara Opstandelingen, Half Holland Dakloos), on radio, in podcasts, and in written media. 

Uitgewoond

In February 2022, my book Uitgewoond (in Dutch, loosely translated as "Worn out") was published by Das Mag. In this popular-scientific book I addres the politics behind the current Dutch housing crisis. The book won the Sociologische Bril 2022 (award for best public sociology) and was further shortlisted for the 2022 Prinsjesboekenprijs (best political book of the year) and the NPO Radio 1 non-fiction book of the year.

Read interviews about my book in: NRC, Trouw, Parool, Follow the Money, Vice, De Correspondent, RTL Nieuws, Sociale Vraagstukken, De Architect, Vers Beton. 

In schaamte kun je niet wonen

In September 2023 I published a shorter essay In schaamte kun je niet wonen ("You can't live in shame") on the lived experience of the housing crisis. I do so based on an analysis of personal (family) experiences, linking these to a critical analysis of our housing politics. Read interviews about this book in Het Parool or De Standaard, or read excerpts from the book in De Groene Amsterdammer or Jacobin NL.

Education

• 2017: PhD in Urban Geography, University of Amsterdam - Cum Laude / with distinction
• 2013: MSc Research Master Metropolitan Studies, University of Amsterdam - Cum Laude / with distinction

Career

• 2022-present: Assistant professor Urban Geography at the University of Amsterdam

• 2017-2022: Postdoctoral researcher Urban Geography at the University of Amsterdam (VENI "investing in inequality")

• 2013-2017: PhD researcher Urban Geography at the University of Amsterdam (gentrification)

• 2014-2015: Full-time researcher Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam (policy evaluation 'Rotterdamwet')

• 2013: junior researcher Centre for Urban Studies at the University of Amsterdam (young people and housing)

• 2010-2013: Research Master Urban Studies/Metropolitan Studies (MSc.) at the University of Amsterdam GSSS

• 2012: Master Sozialwissenschaften at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (Research Exchange)

• 2009-2010: Urban Planning and Landscape at the University of Manchester (Erasmus Exchange)

• 2007-2010: Urban Planning (BSc.) at the University of Amsterdam

Academic publications

2024

1. Howard, A., Hochstenbach, C. & Ronald, R. (2024). Understanding generational housing inequalities beyond tenure, class and context. Economy and Society. Online First. DOI: 10.1080/03085147.2023.2294604.

2023

1. Howard, A., Hochstenbach, C., & Ronald, R. (2023). Rental sector liberalization and the housing outcomes for young urban adults. Urban Geography. Online First. DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2023.2279873.
2. Hochstenbach, C. (2023). Balancing accumulation and affordability: How Dutch housing politics moved from private-rental liberalization to regulation. Housing, Theory and Society, 40(4), 503-529.
3. Uitermark, J., Hochstenbach, C., & Groot, J. (2023). Neoliberalization and urban redevelopment: The impact of public policy on multiple dimensions of spatial inequality. Urban Geography, Online First. DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2023.2203583.
4. Hochstenbach, C. (2023). Networked geographies of private landlordism: mapping flows of capital accumulation and rent extraction. Housing Studies, Online First. DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2023.2174255.
5. Hochstenbach, C., & Aalbers, M. B. (2023). The uncoupling of house prices and mortgage debt: towards wealth-driven housing market dynamics. International Journal of Housing Policy, Online First. DOI: 10.1080/19491247.2023.2170542.

2022

1. Van der Star, M.E., & Hochstenbach, C. (2022). Continuity among stayers: Levels, predictors and meanings of place attachment in rural shrinking regions. Journal of Rural Studies, 96, 369-380.
2. Verlaan, T., & Hochstenbach, C. (2022). Gentrification through the ages: A long-term perspective on urban displacement, social transformation and resistance. City, 26(2-3), 439-449.
3. Hochstenbach, C. (2022). Landlord elites on the Dutch housing market: Private landlordism, class, and social inequality. Economic Geography, 98(4), 327-354.

2021

1. Aalbers, M.B., Hochstenbach, C., Bosma, J., & Fernandez, R. (2021). The death and life of private landlordism: How financialized homeownership gave birth to the buy-to-let market. Housing, Theory and Society, 38(5), 541-563.
2. Hochstenbach, C., & Musterd, S. (2021). A regional geography of gentrification, displacement, and the suburbanisation of poverty: Towards an extended research agenda. Area, 53(3), 481-491.
3. Hochstenbach, C., & Arundel, R. (2021). The unequal geography of declining young adult homeownership: Divides across age, class, and space. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 46(4), 973-994.
4. Hochstenbach, C., Wind, B., & Arundel, R. (2021). Resurgent landlordism in a student city: Urban dynamics of private rental growth. Urban Geography, 42(6), 769-791.

2020

1. Hochstenbach, C., & Ronald, R. (2020). The unlikely revival of private renting in Amsterdam: Re-regulating a regulated housing market. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(8), 1622-1642.
2. Hoekstra, M. S., Hochstenbach, C., Bontje, M. A., & Musterd, S. (2020). Shrinkage and housing inequality: Policy responses to population decline and class change. Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(3), 333-350.
3. Musterd, S., Hochstenbach, C., & Boterman, W. (2020). Ripples of structural economic transformation: The changing social geographies of Dutch metropolitan regions. Applied Geography, 116, 102151.
4. Van Gent, W., & Hochstenbach, C. (2020). The neo-liberal politics and socio-spatial implications of Dutch post-crisis social housing policies. International Journal of Housing Policy, 20(1), 156-172.
5. Kadi, J., Hochstenbach, C., & Lennartz, C. (2020). Multiple property ownership in times of late homeownership: A new conceptual vocabulary. International Journal of Housing Policy, 20(1), 6-24.
6. Arundel, R., & Hochstenbach, C. (2020). Divided access and the spatial polarization of housing wealth. Urban Geography, 41(4), 497-523.
7. Hochstenbach, C., & Arundel, R. (2020). Spatial housing market polarisation: National and urban dynamics of diverging house values. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 45(2), 464-482.

2019

1. Hochstenbach, C. (2019). The age dimensions of urban socio‐spatial change. Population, Space and Place, 25(2), e2220.

2018

1. Hochstenbach, C. (2018). Spatializing the intergenerational transmission of inequalities: Parental wealth, residential segregation, and urban inequality. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 50(3), 689-708.
2. Van Gent, W., Hochstenbach, C., & Uitermark, J. (2018). Exclusion as urban policy: The Dutch ‘act on extraordinary measures for urban problems’. Urban Studies, 55(11), 2337-2353.
3. Hochstenbach, C., & Musterd, S. (2018). Gentrification and the suburbanization of poverty: Changing urban geographies through boom and bust periods. Urban Geography, 39(1), 26-53.

2017

1. Hochstenbach, C., & Boterman, W. R. (2017). Intergenerational support shaping residential trajectories: Young people leaving home in a gentrifying city. Urban studies, 54(2), 399-420.
2. Hochstenbach, C. (2017). State-led gentrification and the changing geography of market-oriented housing policies. Housing, Theory and Society, 34(4), 399-419.

2015

1. Hochstenbach, C., & Van Gent, W.P.C. (2015). An anatomy of gentrification processes: Variegating causes of neighbourhood change. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 47(7), 1480-1501.
2. Hochstenbach, C., Musterd, S., & Teernstra, A. (2015). Gentrification in Amsterdam: Assessing the importance of context. Population, Space and Place, 21(8), 754-770.
3. Hochstenbach, C., & Boterman, W.R. (2015). Navigating the field of housing: housing pathways of young people in Amsterdam. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 30, 257-274.
4. Hochstenbach, C. (2015). Stakeholder representations of gentrification in Amsterdam and Berlin: A marginal process?. Housing Studies, 30(6), 817-838.