ABSTRACT
Dublin provides the starkest expression of the structural violence inherent to, and perpetrated by, the dynamics of global capitalism. This chapter discusses that the reproduction of scarcity and surplus favouring capitalist and corporate interests has been a central feature of the International Monetary Fund’s star pupil and beacon of economic growth in the European union. As Ireland’s capital and largest city, Dublin hosts around 70 percent of the country’s homeless people. Social housing spending was cut, in the name of necessary post-2008 austerity measures, by 72 percent between 2008 and 2012. From 2013 to 2019, the Irish government continued, albeit less dramatically, to decrease its social expenditure. While the post-2008 austerity strategies played a significant role in shaping homelessness, the chapter reveals that cuts in social dwellings, and subsequent displacements, were occurring well before the 2008 period.
