Kipfer, Stefan AndreasGiblon, Melissa Ruth2023-12-082023-12-082023-12-08https://hdl.handle.net/10315/41674There is a global housing affordability crisis; the cost of housing has skyrocketed at rates that far outpace real wages. Using a Marxist lens, I look at the dynamics of commodification and financialization in a capitalist land market. My thesis argues that the existence of a profit motive undermines the potential for affordability to be prioritized. Financialization specifically has entrenched and intensified this process of ‘housing-for-investment’ over ‘housing-for-shelter’. My thesis explores modern political solutions to this crisis, performing a comparative analysis of inclusionary zoning by-laws introduced in Toronto and New York City. This analysis dissects how capitalist-oriented housing affordability policies are structurally bound to the same dynamics of profit-over-people; thus, they can never produce affordable housing. Alternatively, I propose a series of non-reformist reforms and radical political approaches to decommodify housing and remove its tender from the private market altogether.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.GeographyUrban planningElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2023-12-08GeographyHousingMarxCommodificationFinancializationInclusionary zoningCapitalismCommunismPolicyTorontoNew York