Changes in City-Level Foreclosure Rates and Home Prices through the Great Recession and Depressive Symptoms among Older Americans

The changing economic fortunes of cities influence mental health. However, the mechanisms through which this occurs are underexplored. I address this gap by investigating the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Using the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project survey ( N = 1,341), I study whether rises in cities’ home foreclosure rates and declines in median home prices through the Great Recession increase older persons’ depressive symptoms. I also study possible mediation through household assets declines. I find that increases in cities’ home foreclosure rates and declines in median home prices increase depressive symptoms beyond the effects of personal financial losses. Results show no evidence of mediation through asset loses, suggesting effects through other channels. Supplementary analyses reveal less direct links between changes in city-level unemployment rates and median household incomes and changes in depressive symptoms.

Emotional Transition in Social Movements. The PAH Case

We find that some fractured societies, in grappling with Neo-Liberalism as a political project, embark on an emotional transition to win hearts and minds for new, fairer policies to tackle inequalities.Thus, there are ’affective spaces’ facilitating this emotional transition, thereby allowing the building of collective action. For these spaces to work well, they must be configured as chains of interactionrituals, which use emotional transformation to drive social change.This paper is based on a documental analysis and an ethnographic study carried out between 2013 and 2018 in several assemblies of and actions taken by the PAH (a platform for those affected by home foreclosure) in several Catalan municipalities. It was conducted by participatory observation, focus groups and in-depth interviews with activists.