Carla Huisman's homepage

I am a sociologist with a particular interest in social inequality. I have undertaken research on the precarisation of the Dutch rental market; especially the introduction of temporary renting contracts, on collaborative housing, on the politics of dispersal of refugee, on new municipalism and citizen participation – always with a focus on power relations. My research consistently juxtaposes the abstract macro/political level with the reality on the ground of people’s lived experiences. As an engaged researcher, strongly motivated to further social justice, I focus on social inequalities, mostly in the Netherlands, but attentive to the international context.

Below you can find my publications, my PhD thesis, an overview of press attention for my work and my public presentations. Outside university I am chairwoman of the grassroots, volunteer-driven housing association Woningbouwvereniging Soweto, which owns the building Nieuwland.

I am currently a guest researcher at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development Studies in the Research Group Urban Geographies. I work on citizens'mistrust towards local institutions, and how this relates to different forms of social justice.

Before, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the same research group. With Justus Uitermark, I studied the case of Amsterdam-North in the international Municipalist Neighborhood Experiments project.

Earlier, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Housing Management Chair at the Department of Management in the Built Environment, at the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University Delft as part of the Co-Lab research group with Darinka Czischke. My last year there I spent on doing my NWA Idea Generator funded research, "A paradoxical idea: Stimulating integration through spatially concentrating refugees at the microlevel?".

The defence of my PhD unfortunately had to be postponed due to covid but I was able to defend my PhD thesis entitled, "Insecure Tenure: The precarisation of rental housing in the Netherlands" on October 22nd 2020. The research was conducted at the Population Research Centre at the Department of Demography at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen. My supervisors were Clara Mulder and Louise Meijering.

For questions please don't hesitate to contact me at info@cypers.nl.

Journal articles

Please see also my Google Scholar page.

PhD thesis

Insecure Tenure: The precarisation of rental housing in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT: Secure housing is important for people’s well-being. Uncertainty about if and when you will need to leave your home has a negative effect on ontological security, the psychological stability that people need to live a meaningful life. This thesis answers the question whether rental housing in the Netherlands, over the last twenty years, has become less secure. Several developments point to Dutch renting becoming precarious to a significant extent. The successive introductions of new temporary contract forms advances very quickly, as do the continuous steep rent increases and the increases of starting rents. Rules on security of tenure, rent ceilings and maintenance are in theory still strong, but in practice knowledge of these regulations is almost non-existent, and enforcement is so weak that the rules have become largely meaningless. Empirical evidence shows that the majority of young adults in Amsterdam has a temporary renting contract, as opposed to being an owner occupier. Until recently the strength of the Dutch rental sector was that it offered almost as much security as buying a house. However, this strength is now being rapidly eroded – and it will not be easy to reverse this situation once it is too late.

The thesis can be downloaded here.

Miscellaneous

In the Dutch press

Public presentations

Miscellaneos publications

Last updated: 25th September 2025.
What does cypers mean? Cypers is Dutch for the tabby pattern of cats. Why is my website called cypers.nl? Why not? See also this link and this link.