Condominium Governance and Law in Global Urban Context

This book examines condominium, property, governance, and law in international and conceptual perspective and reveals this urban realm as complex and mutating.

Condominiums are proliferating the world over and transforming the socio-spatial organization of cities and residential life. The collection assembles arguably the most prominent scholars in the world currently working in this broad area and situated in multiple disciplines, including legal and socio-legal studies, political science, public administration, and sociology. Their analyses span condominium governance and law on five continents and in nine countries: the United States (US), China, Australia, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, South Africa, Israel, Denmark, and Spain. Neglected issues and emerging trends related to condominium governance and law in cities from Tel Aviv to Chicago to Melbourne are discerned and analysed. The book pursues fresh empirical inquiries and cogent conceptual engagements regarding how condominiums are governed through law and other means. It includes accounts of a wide range of governance difficulties including chronic anti-social owner behaviour, short-term rentals, and even the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they are being dealt with. By uncovering crucial cross-national commonalities, the book reveals the global urban context of condominium governance and law as empirically rich and conceptually fruitful.

The book will appeal to researchers and students in socio-legal studies, law, sociology, political science, urban studies, and public administration as well as journalists, social activists, policymakers, and condo owners/board members.

Randy K. Lippert is Professor at the University of Windsor, Canada, where he specializes in socio-legal studies, urban governance, and security/surveillance. He is author or co-author of some 90 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is co-author (with K. Walby) of Municipal Corporate Security in International Context (Routledge 2015) and co-editor (with K. Walby) of Policing Cities: Urban Securitization and Regulation in a 21st Century World (Routledge 2013). He is also co-editor with others of Sanctuary Practices in International Perspective (Routledge 2012), and Eyes Everywhere: Global Growth of Camera Surveillance (Routledge, 2012). He has been visiting professor at the Centre of Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies, University of Toronto (2006), and Thinker-in-Residence, Deakin University in Australia (2015).

Stefan Treffers is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at York University, Toronto, Canada, with interests in urban governance. His doctoral work is on austerity and urban revitalization projects in Detroit, USA following its unprecedented bankruptcy. He is a member of the CITY Institute at York University and has recently co-authored two articles and one book chapter on condominium governance and law. He has conducted research on a range of topics related to housing governance, policing, social ordering, and surveillance and has published broadly on these topics, most recently in Social & Legal Studies and Housing Studies.