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Thomas Dawance

  • category
    junior researcher
  • research group
    Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research
  • keywords
    housing
    politics & policy

Thomas Dawance is an architect and a sociologist who joined Cosmopolis and Brussels Ageing Studies (Educational Science) in 2019. His joint PhD (Geography / Educational Science) centres on issues raised by the recent International diffusion of the Community Land Trust model, especially in Europe. He will study the ability of this community-led project to strengthen empowerment  and be a tool for social justice.

Together with An-Sofie Smetcoren (BAS), Thomas is in charge of the scientific follow-up of the CALICO project (Care and Living in Community) (2019/2021). This project is the first European Urban Innovative Actions program to take place in and be managed by the Brussels-Capital Region. The objective of the project is to develop a large community-led housing project on a land owned by the Community Land Trust Brussels. Based on the theory of the Commons, this project is an answer to the housing crisis and the problems of the ageing population and other vulnerable groups, especially women. The project involves a large range of stakeholders (Region, CLTB, Municipality of Forest, Eva vzw, Pass-âges asbl, Angela D. asbl) and its academic monitoring aims at delivering policy-based recommendations useful to inspire new Brussels-Capital Region Housing policies and to offer guidelines for a European dissemination of the model. 

Thomas previously has worked at the ULB’s Centre for Urban Research and as an advisor for the Brussels-Capital Region’s Minister of Housing before co-founding the Community Land Trust Brussels where he has been working until the end of 2018. He also has a strong militant background and is engaged in the Brussels’ squatting movement and on the temporary occupation scene.